Democracy an& IReHgtott.

43

A severe blow to pauperism was delivered bythe Quaker, John Bright. The Free Trade move-ment of the nineteenth century as John Bright, Joseph Sturge and other Friends understood it,was in its heart a religious movement. It meantto restore the beneficent designs of Providenceagainst perverse legislation and to vindicate thecause of the poor against the monopoly of the rich.It set real wages rising continually until the closeof the century. Obsolete as they are in externalfeatures, the fundamental ideas of John Bright are even to-day full of possibilities. The thoughtof mankind as one economic community embracingthe whole globe, to which all nations ought tocontribute such goods as they are most fitted toproduce through the nature of their land or throughtheir character acquired by history—here is atruth that will never grow obsolete.

Self-help and brotherhood, these two greatprinciples, which lie at the bottom of the socialreform work of the Quakers, became the foun-dation on which the British Co-operators of thenineteenth century have built up their famousorganisation, which stands at the top of all theco-operative movements of our day not only asto the number of members, but also as to theamount of capital administered by the workingclasses. There even seems to be a direct lineagebetween Quakerism and Co-operation which oughtto be investigated. 1

1 Robert Schloesser, Ober die Bezichungen der Quaker zumGenossenschafts wesen. Genossenschafts correspondenz. October,

1925.