The Spiritual Significance of Modern Socialism (1908)

Many friends having asked me to publish the lecture on The Spiritual Significance of Modern Socialism which I delivered before the People’s Institute, in Cooper Union, New York City, in the winter of 1907-1908, and subsequently in many cities under the auspices of the Socialist Party and various religious bodies, I have enlarged it somewhat, while keeping closely to the form in which it was actually delivered, and send if forth in the hope that it may reach a wider audience and result in helping some of those who read it to a nobler and truer view of the Socialist movement with which I am proud to be identified. - John Spargo, September, 1908John Spargo (1876-1966) was a leading socialist writer of the period. He became identified with the socialists in England in early life, became a leader in the English labor movement; and served on the Executive Council of the Social Democratic Federation. He immigrated to America in 1901 and was thereafter a longtime member of the National Executive Committee of the American Socialist Party. He edited the socialist periodical, The Comrade, became involved in child labor issues; helped promote laws on child and woman labor, and moved to Vermont in 1909. He remained active in socialist circles, but moved to the right over World War I, and with Samuel Gompers and George Creel, founded the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy, in favor of American involvement in the war. He gradually became outspoken advocate of free-market capitalism.