THE MORAL AND SOCIAL TASKS OF WORLD POLITICS ("IMPERIALISM").
THE Evangelical Social Congress of Germany has been mentioned several times in these communications. Originally founded to investigate the duties of our national church in the realm of the social question, it has, during the ten years of its existence, gradually developed into an association in which the general aspects of the duty of the state and of society may be considered on the basis of the gospel. From an ecclesiastical it has become a social-ethical society, and has increasingly directed its attention to questions which cannot be solved, at least alto- gether, by church agencies (agricultural laborers, 1894; the woman problem, 1895; trade, 1896; Germany's evolution as an industrial state, 1897; right of coalition, 1898; profit-sharing, 1899). By the preponderance of this social-ethical over the ecclesiastical purpose the last assembly of the congress was particularly characterized at its meeting in Carlsruhe, the princi- pal city of the grand duchy of Baden, at the last Whitsuntide.
The first two themes which were then discussed touched sub- jects so specifically German that a report of them would not be suitable in this place. The question what should be done to give to boys just passed from the schools a better preparation for their economic, social, and religious functions, and the ques- tion as to the best means of improving housing conditions, both presuppose for an understanding of their occasion the knowledge of our educational and administrative systems and of our juris- prudence ; and much more is such knowledge requisite for a judgment upon the proposals made for a solution. Therefore these two topics will not be further touched at this time.
All the more it seemed to me that the third topic might have a greater interest in America, because of late the United States has found itself in a situation similar to that of the Ger- man empire. The problem is : What moral and social duties belong to our people in consequence of the development of
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