It is claimed by the Catholic publicists that the recent progress of the non-Catholic sociological and economic science is in the direction of the Catholic system. There seems to be a general reaction against the old economic utilitarianism. Concessions to the claims of moral science are made by the socialism of the chair, the German social-political school, and the Austro-English economists; and every advocate of social reform, from whatever point of view, appeals to some kind of ethical principles. The more hopeful spirits foresee the complete triumph of the new Christian social economics over the rationalistic liberal-classical school, and all other forms of social-economic liberalism, however modified.
It is certain that all over the world the old physiocratic theories that so long influenced legislation are losing their hold on the public mind, and the right and duty of the state to interfere for the protection of the weak against the strong are coming to be recognized, at least in theory. The chief danger, from a Catholic point of view, arises from the fact that the notion of state-omnipotence is so widespread, and that there is so little recognition among non-Catholics and Catholic liberals of the existence of innumerable individual and corporate rights upon which the state cannot legitimately infringe.
The Catholic school notes with satisfaction the growing tendency, even among those who adhere consciously or unconsciously to liberal principles, to favor and initiate private reform measures exactly in a line with the Catholic program. In so doing a course is entered upon which cannot logically stop short, say the "Christian Democrats," of either socialism or a complete return to the Christian social order.
Whatever the readers of the American Journal of Sociology may think of the Catholic social movement, they will doubtless be glad to have had the advantage of reading the first general statement of its history, principles, and plans that has thus far appeared in the English language.
St. Louis, Mo.
