ABSTRACT
The concern to generate action against a profit-motivated society can be illustrated by the efforts of the Federation to sponsor a conference in 1922 on "Christianity and the Economic Order"—a topic rarely discussed in a church and almost taboo. Many observers felt revolutionary change was at hand; a few were like Sinclair Lewis and Harry Ward, who sensed the danger of an American Hitler. The revolutionary tradition of Christianity Ward sensed was advancing. The specific goal was to generate action against the politics of a profit-motivated society or to challenge individualistic plutocracy. If continued, Ward wrote, it might well be the kind of religion that could survive the economic democratization of the present order. To implement the goal of reaching as many people as possible who would be most oppressed by the profiteers, Ward, through the Federation, continued the encouragement of street preaching he had learned from Graham Taylor.
