take note where, at present,
solidarity is frustrated.

For instance, it is important to inquire how social unity is negatived in
commercial life. Is competition necessarily unfraternal? Would a Socialist
organization of society necessarily be fraternal? Is it a denial of
fellowship to exact monopoly profit from consumers, or to take advantage
of the ignorance or necessities of a buyer? Is the law of the market
compatible with a fraternal conception of society?

Where can you trace the principle of solidarity actually at work in
industrial life? Give cases where you have observed a real sense of human
coherence and loyalty between employer and employes. How had the feeling
been promoted in those cases and what effect did it have on the economic
relations of the two groups? Why is the feeling of antagonism between
these groups so common? Does the wages system make this inevitable? How
ought we to value the willingness of organized labor to stand together,
especially on strike, and what connection does the bitterness toward
"scabs" have with our subject?

War is a rupture of fellowship on a large scale. The Great War of 1914 has
been the most extensive demonstration of the collapse of love which any of
us wants to see. As soon as one nation no longer recognizes its social
unity with another nation, all morality collapses, and a deluge of hate,
cruelty, and lies follows. The problem of international peace is the
problem of expanding the area of love and social unity. It is the sin of
Christendom that so few took this problem seriously until we were
chastised for our moral stupidity and inertia. The young men and women of
today will have to take this problem on their intellect and conscience for
their lifetime, and propose to see it through.

III

Does religion create social unity or neutralize it? Does prayer isolate or
connect? Has the force of religion in human history done more to divide or
to consolidate men?

Evidently religion may work both ways, and all who are interested in it
must see to it that their religion does not escape control and wreck
fraternity. Even mystic prayer and contemplation, which is commonly
regarded as the flower of religious life, may make men indifferent to
their fellows.

It is worth noting that the prayer experiences of Jesus were not ascetic
or unsocial. They prepared him for action. When he went into the desert
after his baptism it was to settle the principles on which his Mes