r THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES I Joseph Husskm,SJ.,Ph.0. ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF AMERICA/ LECTURER FORDHAM UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SERVICE, AUTHOR OF "the world problem/' "democratic industry/' "evolution and social progress/' etc. Published hy MATRE & COMPANY CHICAGO 1921 Smprimi Potest: Franciscus X. McMenamy, S.J. Praepositus Provincialis, Provinciae Missouriensis. ^iilil ©bstat: P. L. BlERMANN, Censor Deputatus. hnptimsAntt ^Georgius Gulielmus Mundelein, Archie pisco pus Chicagiensis. die 25, Septembris, 1921 COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY MATRE AND COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES. HI) TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I Capital and Labor Chapter Page Introduction vii-viii I THE CORNER STONE OF SOCIAL JUSTICE 13 A Living Wage 13 (a) Nature of the Living Wage 13 (b) Attainment of a Living Wage. ... 16 (c) Providing for the Future 18 (d) The Problem of Unemployment. . . 20 II CHRISTIAN UNIONISM OR RED RADICALISM 26 Labor Organizations 26 (a) The Catholic Traditions 27 (b) Christian Ideals or Marxism 29 (c) Catholic Labor Unionists 33 III JUNGLE WAR OR CHRISTIAN PEACE 36 The Class Struggle 36 (a) Theory of the Class Struggle 37 (b) The Right to Strike 39 (c) Christian Peace 43 (d) Arbitration and Conciliation 46 IV WOMAN AT THE WHEEL OF INDUSTRY .' 48 The Woman Laborer 48 (a) Woman's Ideal Place 49 . 1174400 Chapter Page (b) Woman in the Labor World 51 (c) Protecting the Woman Worker. ... 53 V CAPITALISM, PAST AND PRES- ENT 58 Church and Capitalism 58 (a) Private Capital 60 (b) Historic Capitalism 61 (c) Present-day Capitalism 65 VI DEMOCRACY IN INDUSTRY 68 Social Reconstruction" 68 (a) Proletarian Dictatorship 68 (b) Catholic Industrial Ideals 72 (c) Looking Towards the Dawn 74 VII COPARTNERSHIP AND CO- OPERATION 78 Modern Gild Ideals 78 (a) Copartnership and Profit Sharing. . 78 (b) Cooperation 81 (c) Cooperative Production 83 (d) Modem Gild Systems 85 VIII LABOR AND CAPITAL IN ONE. . . 88 Is Cooperative Production Workable? 88 (a) A Christian Ideal 88 (b) When Labor Becomes Capital 91 (c) Taking a Leaf from Capitalism. ... 93 PART II Christian Democracy Chapter Page IX HUMAN EQUALITY 99 (a) The True Concept 99 (b) Church and Social Justice 102 (c) Common Brotherhood 105 (d) Kinds of Equality 108 X PRIVATE OWNERSHIP 112 (a) The Church's Doctrine 112 (b) The Socialist Attitude 117 (c) Under Christian Democracy 119 XI OZANAM ON POVERTY AND WEALTH 124 (a) "Back to the Masses!" 124 (b) The Virtue of Alms-giving 128 (c) The Good Samaritan 131 XII CHRISTIAN CHARITY 135 (a) The Science of Charity 135 (b) Christ in the Poor 139 (c) The Poor Always With Us 142 (d) Three Classes of Catholic Charity Workers 146 (e) Catholic Efficiency 148 CATHOLIC SOCIAL ACTION- PIUS X 154 THE APOSTOLIC RULE 159 Vll INTRODUCTORY The purpose of the following book is to offer, for the use of all, a brief but suggestive exposition of the Christian principles underlying the great social problems of the day. It discusses, to this end, the questions of wages, of labor unions, of strikes and the class struggle, of woman labor and its proper safeguards, of Socialism, capitalism and industrial democracy. From the consideration of the issues of justice and charity involved in the relations between capital and labor it passes to the vital problem of coopera- tion and the application of the gild idea to modern industrial conditions. The watchwords of human equality and frater- nity, and the rights of private property, are then ex- amined. Full attention is given throughout the various chapters to the contentions of Socialism. This is also true of the final chapters that deal with the subjects of poverty and wealth, and of Christian charity as scientifically applied in our own day. Careful references are made in the first six chajH ters to the author's two volumes that more amply develop the germ-ideas contained in this part of the book, and together explain the industrial question from a theoretical, practical and historical point of Vlll view. The favorable reception given to these two volumes, ''The World Problem" and "Democratic Industry," as also to the author's latest work on "Evolution and Social Progress," encourage the writer in the hope that there will be a wide and fruitful field for the present book in its popular editions. For the insistence placed here upon the intimate connection between economics and religion, between the industrial problems and the doctrines of Chris- tianity, no apology is needed. It may be well, how- ever, to quote the following brief authoritative pas- sages to show how Catholics, Protestants and So- cialists agree upon this most important point. In the opinion of Marx and his consistent followers, the perfect acceptance of Socialism must also imply the complete rejection of the Church and of all supernatural religion. IX The Catholic Church Speaks "It is the opinion of some, and the error is already very common, that the social question is merely an economic one, whereas in point of fact it is above all a moral and religious matter, and for that reason must be settled by the principles of morality and according to the dictates of religion. For even though wages are doubled and the hours of labor are shortened, and food is cheapened, yet if the workingman harkens to the doctrines that are taught on this subject, ens he is prone to do, and is prompted by the examples set before him to throw off respect for God and to enter upon a life of im- morality, his labors and his gain will avail him naught/' "Civil society, no less than religion, is imperiled; it is the sacred duty of every right-minded m^n to be up in defense of both the one and the other." — Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical on "Christian Democ- racy," Jan. 1 8, 1 901. The Protestant Endorsement ''In no case can the Christian admit that there can he any permanent divorce between religion and economics, since no aspect of life is to be exempt from the sway of Christ. Unless Christian prin- ciples are really applicable to industry, we cannot claim finality or universality for Christianity. Whether the -final consummation of the ideal is to come sooner or later, by sloiv degree or by sudden cataclysm, it is our plain and unescapable responsi- bility as Christians to give ourselves with all our might to Christianising all our social life.'* — Com- mittee on the War and Religious Outlook (represent- ing thirty-two Protestant denominations.) What Marx Held "This economic — and notliing but economic — Socialism is a metaphysical abstraction. One of the greatest insights of Marx zvas that of the connec- tions of the economic with tJte other aspects of human life. And Socialism as a revolutionary theory of society implies an ethical, religious and political revolution as a consequence of the economic one." — Belfort Bax (Socialist) , "Commonwealth" Vol. IV, No. ii6. PART ONE CAPITAL AND LABOR 13 First Chapter The Corner Stone of Social Justice A LiviN'G Wage Man is a human being, made to the image and likeness of God, and destined for higher things than merely the amassing of personal wealth or the en- richment of a capitalist employer. This truth is fundamental in all Christian sociology. The im- mediate purpose of industry is not the accumulation of profits, as men in practice believed during the era of industrialism that followed upon the decad- ence of the medieval gilds, but the provision of a decent livelihood for all engaged in the noble work of production for the common good. It is not to enable a few to live luxuriously and to cumber the earth with their palaces and villas, but to enable all who deserve it to enjoy the fruits of faithful toil. Rudimentary as this truth is, the world has failed to grasp it. Capital and labor alike have lost their hold upon the vital Christian principles that once were so clearly understood in the Ages of Faith. /. Nature of the Living Wage* The earth was created for all alike. Directly, by its cultivation; or indirectly, by the processes of ♦Consult: "The World Problem," pp. 91-95, 108, 114, 147, 148. 259. 14 NATURE OF THE LIVING WAGE industry and commerce or by any other worthy service, the worker has a right to draw subsistence from it. The mental no less than the manual worker, and the spiritual laborer as well, who confers on mankind the highest boon of all, are deserving of their hire. Even the humblest toiler has the right to have his human needs supplied in return for his honest labor. For the majority this is possible only through the living wage. The living wage is defined by Pope Leo XIII. as a wage "sufficient to support the wage-earner in reasonable and frugal comfort." Such comfort implies the satisfaction of all real human needs. These are not merely physical, but educational, recreational, moral and religious as well. It should enable him further to provide for a family in Christian decency, that the mother of the home may abide with her children, caring for their bodily wants, training their docile minds, and guiding them in the path of virtue and religion. Such is the Christian ideal. It should finally make it pos- sible for him, by thrift and temperance, to lay aside sufficient for future emergencies, or to insure him- self against them. Opportunity should be given the worker for a wholesome and cheerful family life. Housing NATURE OF THE LIVING WAGE 15 facilities will naturally differ in the various locali- ties. The same conditions are not equally attainable in all cities. But the worker should be able to enjoy, in the full sense of the word, the happiness of home, with the reasonable comfort that this sup- poses. The wage of the woman worker must be sufficient at least for her own support, independently of any assistance from others, thus removing- from her the dangers, physical and moral, which poverty often brings to her. The wage of the adult male worker should at least suffice for an average family. The question whether the obligation of the em- ployer to pay a wage sufficient, in the case of a married worker, to support wife and children, should be considered an obligation of justice or of charity is answered variously by Catholic moralists. Yet charity, we must remember, is no less binding than justice. Some stipulate that such assistance be further contributed towards the family support as wife and children can reasonably give. Literally taken, the labor encyclical of Pope Leo refers only to the obligation in justice of paying a wage adequate for the support of the laborer himself, but he evidently desires that it should also suffice for the support of wife and children. There is question here, be it clearly understood, of the very least wage 16 ATTAIN'MENT OF A LIVING WAGE that must be paid, and not of what should in any given instance be offered as proper and befitting, so that the laborer's wages may be adequately propor- tioned to his contribution to industry. //. Attainment of a Living Wage* The mere operation of the law of supply and demand cannot be counted upon permanently to secure a living wage for all. Neither is it attainable through the conversion of selfish capital or even through the unaided efforts of altruistic emplo3'^ers. The latter will often be forced to yield to the condi- tions imposed by competition with unscrupulous rivals. Even the trade unions, though gradually embrac- ing larger numbers of unskilled workers, are far from extending to all. This is particularly true where there is question of the multitude of women workers. Labor unions are naturally interested primarily or exclusively in the organized worker alone, although indirectly their influence also affects the lot of the unorganized. It must further be taken into account that the success of unionism in one period, under economic conditions favorable to its development, is no guarantee of its position on the morrow. ♦Consult : "The World Problem," pp. 87-91, 95-98. ATTAIN'MENT OF A LIVING WAGE 17 The Stable attainment of a living wage for all unable to protect themselves is possible only- through wage legislation. Such legislation is a tradition in the Church. Wages, in gild days, were minutely regulated by gild statutes, which, in turn, were authorized by the State or municipality. In their "Social Reconstruction" the American Bishops demand a legal minimum wage (p. 17). Minimum- wage laws for women and children have been intro- duced into many parts of the United States and Great Britain. They had long before been success- ful elsewhere. For those unable to earn the legal minimum, special provisions are made that they may not be excluded from whatever participation in gainful occupation may be possible for them. Such laws hardly call for any defense at the present time. Minimum-wage laws for adult male workers have been less common, because less imperatively needed. They are necessary to whatever extent a living wage may be impossible of attainment without them. Finally, that such laws may be effective, minimum- wage boards are required, on which capital, labor and the public are fairly represented to adjust the wages to the changing conditions of prices and similar considerations. Careful investigation is made into the cost of living and minimum-wage 18 PROVIDING FOR THE FUTURE rates are recommended. If, after public hearings have been held, these are found satisfactory, they are accepted and promulgated as minimum-wage legislation. Yet the minimum wage is not, any more than countless other measures, to be regarded as a panacea. It must be supplemented by additional legislation, wisely planned to meet the occurring difficulties. Excessive legislation is a futility and a danger. An extensive study of this subject has been offered by Dr. Ryan in his "Living Wage" and "Distributive Justice." ///. Providing for the Future* The living wage must obviously suffice both for present and future needs and emergencies, provided that the virtue of thrift is not disregarded. The laborer must clearly be protected against want in sickness and old age. Involuntary unemployment should not be permitted to plunge both him and his family into hopeless misery, or make them depend- ent upon charity. Social insurance against sickness, invalidity, un- employment and old age is therefore to be favored and legally promoted, — ^but in so far only as it may ♦Consult: "The World Problem," pp. 192-200. PROVIDING FOR THE FUTURE 19 be a temporary necessity. It is not to be aimed at as a final measure. Accepted in the latter sense, it would make of the worker a mere ward of the State. Social insurance, in other words, must not become a substitute for a real living wage. The minimum- wage should gradually be increased until it enables the worker to carry his own insurance and so retain his rightful independence. Where such a wage exists there is no reason for State insurance, which then becomes merely a part of State paternalism, If social insurance is needed it should, as far as pos- sible, be levied on the industry. Personal insurance of certain kinds may, if necessar}^ be made obliga- tory; but with great care not to infringe on true personal liberty. In conclusion, it is fitting that the worker be remunerated, not with a mere minimum, but with a wage adequately in proportion with his individual contribution to industry and to the nation's pros- perity. Neither, however, should he demand more than the common good allows. Both wages and profits must be strictly circumscribed by this. Ex- ceptional enterprise or industry- deserves an excep- tional reward, but under no conditions should this be permitted to become excessive, whether on the part of capital, management, or labor. 20 THE PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT Above all we must bear in mind that the first moral charge on industry is the laborer's right to a decent livelihood. This principle flows from the fact stated in the beginning, that the purpose of industry is not profits, but a proper Christian living for all who participate in it. To refer once more to the Bishops' document: "The employer has a right to get a reasonable living out of his business, but he has no right to interest on his investment, until his employees have obtained at least a living wage. This is the human and Christian, in contrast to the purely commercial and pagan, ethics of in- dustry" (p. 24). IV. The Problem of Unemployment* But what of those periods, the most tragic in the life of the laborer, when all wages cease, the days of unemployment? "For six months of our first year of married life," Mr. Whiting Williams quotes the wife of a South Wales miner as saying, "there been no work for me man. Thirty years ago that been, but a bitter memory 'twill be — aye, for the rest of our days." Unemployment has been a chronic evil under our modern economic system. The number of unem- *Consult: "The World Problem," pp. 15, 16 and Chapters XIII and XIV. i THE PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT 21 ployed in the United States, during the worst days that followed the abnormal war conditions, can be set at close to 6,000,000. There were normally about 1,000,000 unemployed. Yet nothing is more pathetic than unemployment, with its great underlying tragedy of the home. Men can be seen wandering idly through the streets, or standing in despondent crowds before employment offices, or waiting in long lines answering the latest advertise- ments in the "want columns" of the daily papers. There are those among them who still gaily face the world, although their outward joviality may merely hide a heavy heart. Others appear worn and wasted as we see them standing in the anxious row before an advertiser's gate, that now is late and slow in opening. Here and there a man drops out, despairing of his chances, and instinctively the line is closed again. Seldom is discontent more success- fully spread than at such a time. Is there then no way of preventing the constant recurrence of this calamity? That is the question statesmen, sociologists and the workers have been asking these many years. "Do away with your sys- tem of profits," the Socialist exclaims with an as- surance that wins him many followers. "Let the community own and manage the means of produc- 22 THE PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT tion and distribution." That, indeed, would end starvation under capitalism, but in all probabilty would exchange it for a starvation still more wide- spread and terrible under a proletarian dictatorship or a Socialist bureaucracy. It implies at all events a permanent slavery to which free men cannot per- mit themselves to be subjected. If "wage-slavery" is regarded as a reality under the present system, it certainly cannot be cured by a transformation into a State-slavery that would be far more galling. There is one remedy for the economic bungling and greed for profits which intensify the evil of unemployment. It is pithily expressed in the words of the American Bishops when they say : "The majority must somehow become owners (i. e. indi- vidually and not collectively), or at least in part, of the instruments of production." Private ownership under copartnership and free cooperative production, to which reference is here made, will establish the interest of the worker, and not profits, as the prime concern in industry. But that millennium, though we must ever keep it in sight, is still in the distance. In the mean time millions of families are left to starvation. What then can be done for the imme- diate present? In seeking to answer this question we are not con- THE PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT 23 fronted, as it might seem, with the riddle of a Sphinx. A constructive program was carefully worked out by the American Association for Labor Legislation. Its greatest recommendation, in the main, is its obviousness. In substantial agreement with it were the conclusions arrived at by the Inter- national Labor Conference at Washington. The first remedy suggested is the establishment of public employment exchanges. No one can question the wisdom of this plan. The second is a systematic distribution of public works, including the regular public occupations. But here it must be cautioned that emergency work, reserved by State or munici- pality for seasons of unemployment, may often do more harm than good by unreasonably high wages which politicians are induced to offer. These draw men away from other and necessary occupations, and so precipitate a worse confusion. The third remedy is perhaps most far-reaching in its importance. It is the abolition of seasonable unemployment by regula- tion of industry. With system and foresight steady work can be secured for labor in many industries that have hitherto constantly passed from seasons of overwork to periods of unemployment. Lastly, and least desirable, though its claims may not be overlooked, there is unemployment insurance, 24 THE PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT to which reference has already been made. This can be studied in its many European appHcations, in the Ghent plan and in Great Britain. It has the ap- proval of the International Labor Conference and of the American Bishops in their "Social Recon- struction" program. The need of it is a sign of social maladjustment. Contributions from the State should in any case be reduced to a minimum and the unemployment fund raised by just methods for each industry. Workers whose wages are inadequate should never be taxed for any social insurance, which should fall mainly, if that were possible, upon those who fail to remunerate their workers suffi- ciently or cause the evils in question. But labor, too, must do its part, and not hesitate to accept reductions in wages which are required to make an energetic production possible. Extravagant wages and extravagant union demands must no less surely be counted among the causes of unemploy- ment than the greed of selfish employers who wil- fully hamper production to maintain their excessive prices. If labor is to make sacrifices it has a right, however, to demand that employers lead the way. Nothing can be more important for the whole country than the solution of the unemployment prob- lem. "Employment," as the Portland Oregon THE PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT 25 Journal says, "is the starting point in the everlasting circle that makes prosperity." For employment, as the writer correctly argues, "means buying power, buying power means consumption, consumption means production, and production in turn means em- ployment." So the circle closes on itself. 26 Second Chapter Christian Unionism or Red Radicalism Labor Organizations Organization is the watchword of the economic world. Capital is organized into mighty trusts, cor- porations and employers' associations. Labor, too, is drawing over all the earth its intricate web of trade unions, labor parties, Soviets, syndicates and internationals of every hue and color. It is the duty of the Church, with her divinely inspired wisdom, with her experience of twenty centuries and with her supreme success in the field of labor organization, to point the way to true Christian progress in this most important work. Hers alone is the glory of having made possible the greatest of all labor organizations of history, the gilds of the Middle Ages. The Church recognizes that without organization there can be no hope for labor. Industrial forces, unchecked by labor unionism, will tend steadily to degrade the position of the worker. Hence, re- ferring to labor's right to organize the American Bishops say: "It is to be hoped that this right will never again be called in question by any considerable number of employers" (p. 19). But not every form of labor unionism can lay claim to the support THE CATHOLIC TRADITIONS 27 of the Church. No organization, whether of em- ployers or labor, devoid of true Christian ideals can ever hope to meet with her approval. /. The Catholic Traditions* The economic chaos which followed upon the Reformation is ascribed by Pope Leo XIII. to two causes : the destruction of the gilds and the separa- tion of religion from industrial life through the loss of the ancient Faith. The craft gilds were the medieval trade unions. In fostering them the Church showed her profound and practical interest in labor unionism. That interest has not been lessened in our day, as may be seen from the Christian labor unions founded by Bishop Ketteler and destroyed by the tyranny of Bismarck; from the brilliant encyclicals of Leo XIII., confirmed anew by his successors; and from the countless other social documents by the great prelates of the Church, or the joint national pastorals of large bodies of the Catholic episcopate, no less than from the positive work accomplished by Catholics in many countries. Labor organization was not merely promoted and fostered by the Church, but reached its highest ♦Consult : "The World Problem." pp. 171-176; "Demo- cratic Industry," chapters XVIII-XX. 28 THE CATHOLIC TRADITIONS development under her care. Today it can do no better than to follow her prudent, enlightened and sympathetic counsel. Her traditions are to be copied not according to the letter, but according to the spirit, as she definitely states when she sets be- fore us the craft gilds of the Middle Ages. These organizations firmly guarded with equal care the interests of the craftsman and the con- sumer, so long as her own spirit freely inspired them. They provided for just weight, fair measure, moderate prices, while securing for the producer a remuneration that was neither inadequate nor excessive. Their first aim, in brief, was that com- mon good which is so generally disregarded by modern organizations, whether of capital or labor. To secure this' they were empowered to hold their own courts to punish delinquencies in industrial matters. Yet they were strictly subject to their proper and lawful authorities, municipal or national, from whom their powers were all derived and by whom their statutes were approved. They steadily grew in perfection with the growing influence of the Church, and lost their prestige only in propor- tion as they neglected her guidance. Under the Reformation they at once became economically impotent, though still continuing in a languishing CHRISTIAN IDEALS OR MARXISM 29 life, exploited by royalty or by the latest court favorites. //. Christian Ideals or Marxism* It is the duty of the labor unions, today as in the day of the medieval gilds, to provide not for their own interests exclusively, but to see that the public good is supremely guarded in all their activities. The latter become unlawful when they exceed the limits set by social justice or by Christian charity. All attempts to extort still more favorable conditions than these allow, whether in shorter hours, higher wages, or extravagant demands upon employers or the long-suffering public, should be combatted at once, as no less reprehensible than the tyranny of an oppressive capitalism. Unjust restriction of output, abnormally short hours or "loafing on the job" is ruinous to the best interests of labor and the public. The demand for excessive wages is destructive of industry and the common good. The profiteering of capital does not justify the profiteering of labor, but all must unite to combat every form of this evil wherever it may manifest itself. The closed shop, a common institution of Catholic ♦Consult: "The World Problem," Chapter X, and pp. 176- 178; "Democratic Industry," pp. 325-327. 30 CHRISTIAN IDEALS OR MARXISM times, if rightly understood, is not in itself to be condemned. It can easily, however, become unjust or opposed to charity, as when access- to the union is made difficult, so that there is both a closed shop and a closed union; when the union itself is repre- hensible because of false radicalism; when the common good is disregarded in the end& pursued by it or the methods employed ; or when the incon- venience caused is out of proportion to the good accomplished. Hence we find some of the best friends of labor firmly opposed to the idea of seek- ing to enforce a closed shop, even as they are opposed to the "open shop" of the employer when this means in reality a shop closed to union labor. Dr. Ryan, whose interest in labor unionism no one can reasonably question, thus states the case : "As a general rule, workers ought not to be coerced into joining the union through contracts by which the employer agrees to employ only union members. It is better that they should be brought into the organization by methods of education and persuasion. And the employer who is willing to deal with the union, to establish union conditions of employment, and to permit unionization by persua- sion, ought not to be asked or required to sign a contract for the closed shop. In such a case the open CHRISTIAN IDEALS OR MARXISM 31 shop is a fair and reasonable institution." ("Social liecunstruction," p. 131.) The conditions of the Middle Ages no longer ex- ist which then made of the closed shop an institution authorized by public authority and approved or even demanded by the community — so long as the gilds themselves had not degenerated into selfish institu- tions, placing their group interests above those of the general welfare. It was the rule of medieval gilds that all laborers who wished to practise their trade, as master crafts- men, must belong to their respective craft gilds. But the first purpose of these gilds, as has been stated, was to ensure for all men a fair remunera- tion, reasonable prices, honest workmanship, full measure and perfect quality of goods — in a word, to seek, not the selfish interests of their members by the shortest hours and the highest wages, but to promote the welfare of the entire community, and so also to serve their own interests in the best, and wisest, as well as in the most Christian way. With such a purpose in view, it was the wish of the community itself that every master workman should belong to his own craft gild, thus to safeguard the public prosperity of their town. Opposed to all these Christian ideals is the 32 CHRISTIAN IDEALS OR MARXISM modern Red radicalism. The excesses of which false labor unionism is capable can be seen from the revolutionary agitation of Socialism, the Syn- dicalist plans of the general strike, the sabotage of the I. W. W. and the Bolshevist regime of rape, murder and expropriation, which has now become part of history. Reckless confiscation of private productive property was the ultimate dream of the men who organized such movements. Need we wonder that labor unionism, where it avoids these excesses, should still seek its own advantages regardless of others, unless it is strongly influenced by religious principles? God- less labor unionism can be no better than godless capitalism. There is no choice between the two. Each will extort from others all that it safely can. Christianity is the one great need of modem labor as of modern capital. Yet even Red radicalism has performed at least one service for mankind. It has helped to awaken the conscience of the world. Men who would not listen to the voice of the Church have been roused by the menace of revolution at their own doors. In many instances, unfortunately, the awakening has come too late. CATHOLIC LABOR UNIONISTS 33 ///. Catholic Labor Unionists'^ In a Catholic country the correct labor union will be one in which, as in the medieval gilds, the Catholic religion and economic interests go hand in hand. The purpose of labor unions, as Pope Leo XIII. wrote, is' to enable each individual member "to better his condition to the utmost, in body, mind and property." But, he takes care to add immediately : "It is clear that they must pay special attention to the duties of religion and morality, and that their internal discipline must be guided very strictly by these weighty considerations What advantage can it be to a workingman to obtain by means of a society all that he requires and to endanger his soul for lack of spiritual food? 'What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul ?' " Organization of distinct Catholic, or at least Christian labor unions, as the case might be, was therefore recognized as a strict necessity also in various non-Catholic countries when the official labor movement became Socialistic. Hence the flourishing associations of this nature that arose in many European lands. Where Catholic or Christian unions are not ♦Consult: "The World Problem," pp. 179, 181-184. 34 CATHOLIC LABOR UNIONISTS feasible, and the existing labor unions remain purely neutral, it becomes at least the duty of the Catholic trade unionist to acquaint himself thor- oughly with his Catholic social principles, as it is the duty of the Church to aid him in his task by literature, social courses and social instruction. Catholic organizations for this particular purpose, to which every trade unionist is to belong, were par- ticularly insisted upon by Pope Pius X. It is further the duty of every Catholic trade unionist, in purely neutral unions, regularly to attend his union meetings, that he may help to defeat the measures of extreme radicalism, whose advocates are ever watchful and aggressive, and may bravely champion the true interests of labor, in full conformity with social justice and Christian charity. If such action is not taken, labor unionism will everywhere find itself chained to the chariot wheels of a triumphant Socialism. The reason will not be because workingmen desire Socialism, but because a mere handful of Socialists have been more active in their cause of destruction, moral and industrial, than thousands of Christian workingmen in the cause of true social progress, with no constructive ideals placed before them. CATHOLIC LABOR UNIONISTS 35 Merely to combat Socialism, to point out the dis- illusionment, false radicalism, misery, despair and ultimate slavery to which it leads, is not sufficient. Men must be taught and encouraged to destroy, or at least lessen, the real causes of Socialism and social discontent, and to apply the Christian remedies. Of these we shall come to speak in their proper place. 36 Third Chapter Jungle War or Christian Peace The Class Struggle "After the World War the Class War!" Such was the Socialist slogan when the nations were still engaged in. the most sanguinary and momentous struggle of all history. Hardly had this war ceased when the other broke loose in all its full intensity. In place of a larger freedom and a truer brotherhood of man, for which the world had hoped, the old class rule was but replaced by the new, the autocracy of wealth by the dictatorship of the proletariat. The new order, Marx had told his followers, must be ushered in with violence and blood. However exaggerated the first reports doubtless were, loot and lust marked the Bolshevist triumph in Russia. Plunder and mad excesses summed up the prole- tarian reign in stricken Hungary. Spartacan re- volts and machine-gun battles in the streets o3 Berlin threatened the very life of the new Republic which had risen out of the disasters of the war. Now as then, Socialism is using every opportunity to foment the universal war of the masses against the classes, which was first declared as the Socialist ultimatum, in "The Communist Manifesto," penned by Marx and Engels. Socialism assumes countless THEORY OF THE CLASS STRUGGLE 37 outward forms and passes under many different names, but is always the same at heart. /. Theory of the Class Struggle* The doctrine of the class struggle is one of the most fundamental of Socialist teachings. It holds that the history of the world has, in the main, been nothing mOre than a series of economic struggles, whose successive stages have been slavery, serfdom and the wage system. Under each of these labor was variously exploited by the possessing classes. This struggle, we are told, must continue until, under Socialism, all classes have finally ceased to exist. There is nothing new in this theory which Bol- shevism pushed to its extreme conclusion, until obliged to admit its failure. In practice the Com- munists themselves formed a most distinct class, a Red aristocracy. The one-class idea, the enforce- ment of which has always ultimately been sought through violence, is not in any way new. The en- tire Communist ideal, together with its bloody meth- ods, is clearly put by Shakespeare upon the lips of Jack Cade in the fifteenth century. Hear the Bol- shevist harangue as given in the second part of ♦Consult: "The World Problem," pp. 8, 104-106; "Demo- cratic Industry," pp. 179, 229. 38 THEORY OF THE CLASS STRUGGLE Henry VI, Act IV, Scene 2, by this fifteenth-cen- tury Trotsky : "Be brave then, for your captain is brave, and vows reformation. There shall be in England, seven halfpenny loaves sold for a penny * * * g^lj ^\^q realm shall be in common; * * * there shall be no more money ; * * * j ^yju apparel them all in one livery that they may agree like brothers. "Now show yourselves men; 'tis for liberty. We will not leave one lord, one gentleman. Spare none but such as go in clouted shoon. * * * "And henceforth all things shall be in common/' What is the Catholic view? The Church ac- knowledges the inhumanity of man to man, of which history so clearly bears witness. What is more, she alone successfully remedied this, if we prescind from the salutary social results of religion in the Old Testament. The oppression of labor under paganism she relieved, not by futile efforts at revolution or new class tyrannies, but by the changes she wrought in the hearts of men through the doctrines of Christ. So finally she struck the shackles from the slave, gave liberty to the serf in the free cities of Christendom, and, during the period when gild life reached its highest development, established the most ideal economic conditions that THE RIGHT TO STRIKE 39 history records. The struggle of classes, in the Socialist sense, was then unknown. The disputes of the early gild days, as Brentano correctly says, were like family disputes between parents and children. Socialism disclaims to have created the class struggle. This we shall not dispute. But it has done all in its power to foment class hatred. The class struggle is but the expression of that paganism in economic life into which Socialism would plunge the world still more deeply, since its efforts everywhere have been directed against re- ligion and the Church. There is no need of a destruction of classes, whose existence is founded on nature itself, but of a Christian regulation of their mutual relations in accordance with the laws of nature and the Gospel of Christ. Such is the teaching of the Church. Once more to bring about this harmony, as it existed under Catholic influence in the best days of the gilds, is now the duty of Christian Democracy. //. The Right to Strike* The Church does not condemn the rightful struggles of labor. Neither, however, can she in- ♦Consult: "The World Problem," chapters XI, XII; "Democratic Industry," pp. 325, 326. 40 THE RIGHT TO STRIKE discriminately endorse "the right to strike" under all conditions, no matter who may ruffer the conse- quences, or what these consequences may be. She deplores strikes and labor troubles; yet she upholds the striking laborer in his right to use this weapon of economic war when all conditions are fulfilled that make his cause legitimate. In the same way she stands prepared to acknowledge the just con- tentions of the employer. She was founded for no single class exclusively, and her interests are wide as mankind. While defending in the abstract the right to strike we must not forget the seriousness of the many un- justified strikes, as well as lockouts. The exagger- ated demands of one group of men, perhaps rel- atively very small, may enprmously highten the price of certain important commodities for the en- tire community, and even imply serious sufferings and death itself. According to the United States Department of Labor Review, out of the 3,950,000 workers who struck in this country in 19 19 no fewer than 1,052,256 had reasons which labor officials themselves could not recognize, or which they open- ly condemned as unwarranted. (Vol. X, No. 6, pp. 199-207. "The High Cost of Strikes," p. 93.) Irresponsible labor leaders are willing, in favor- THE RIGHT TO STRIKE 41 able times, to keep their ascendancy through con- stant agitation, seeking to hold their memberships in line to strike for continued increases in wages. The injustice perpetrated upon employers or the public is of no consideration to them, nor the amount of the wages already attained. They are the an- archists of the labor unions, as the profiteers are anarchists of capitalism. Catholic labor unionists should shake themselves free of such leadership. Yet these abuses must not therefore make us con- demn the entirely licit weapon of the strike when it is justly and rightly used. To present a concise statement of the principles regarding the use of the various forms of industrial warfare — the strike, the lockout, the sympathetic strike and the blacklist — it will suffice to quote here clauses 32 and 33 of "A Catholic Social Platform," with which the writer closes his volume on "Demo- cratic Industry" : 22 — Strikes are permitted for a grave and just cause, when there is hope of success and no other satisfactory solution can be found, when justice and charity are preserved, and the rights of the public respected. Yet conciliation, arbitration and trade agreements are the usual means to be suggested in their stead. Hence the utility of public boards for 42 THE RIGHT TO STRIKE this purpose. As in the strike, so in the lockout, a serious and just cause is required, and the rights of the worker and of the public must be respected. Charity is far more readily violated in the lockout than in the strike, because of the greater suffering likely to be inflicted on the laborer deprived of his work than on the employer. 33 — Justification of the sympathetic strike will rarely be found, while the presumption is over- whelmingly against the general sympathetic strike. Blacklists on the part of employers that perma- nently exclude from his trade a worker displeasing to them, who honestly seeks employment, are opposed to the first principles of justice. The supreme weapon of Red syndicalism and its spawn, the I. W. W., is the general strike. This also is the purpose of the "one big union." Social- ism never fails in practice to support this measure, where it is not directed against a Socialist govern- ment. By a single order syndicalists would palsy all the country's industries, and clog the veins of trade and commerce, thus forcing capital to sur- render. They would then take over the means of production and distribution without any compensa- tion, and own and operate them through the workers in each industry. A similar end was achieved CHRISTIAN' PEACE 43 through more violent methods by the Bolshevists in Russia and is planned by their followers throughout the world. Yet Bolshevism received the enthus- iastic support of the Socialist press at the very moment when it was looting the banks and robbing the possessors of private as well as of productive property. The reason is plain. It was true to the supreme Marxian edict: "Expropriate the expro- priators." All capital was interpreted as the ex- propriated goods of the worker, and private wealth was viewed in no other light. Quite different is the excellent Christian gild idea of individual ownership and cooperative con- trol by the workers, of such enterprises as they can rightfully establish. This plan, so strongly advo- cated by the American Bishops, is vitiated under Red radicalism by the initial act of robbery, and ruined by the ultimate aim of the destruction of individual rights, the abolition of religion and the substitution of a new and worse slavery for the Czarism or autocracy of wealth. Not this way lies the path to liberty and true democracy. ///. Christian Peace^ While the Church acknowledges the lawfulness ^Consult: "The World Problem," pp. 5, 7, 107-110, 117-122; •'Democratic Industrj'," pp. 204, 205. 44 CHRISTIA'N' PEACE of Strikes, when the conditions required actually exist, yet she insistently demands that the circum- stances whence these troubles arise should be re- moved so far as possible, and that all necessary provisions for a peaceful no less than a just settle- ment of labor disputes be taken. Hence, in the first place, the need of promoting- legislation that will efifectually help to remove all causes of well- founded discontent on the part of the laboring classes; hence, secondly, the need of public boards of arbitration ; hence, thirdly, the need, on the part of capital and labor, of seeking ways of trade agree- ment and conciliation; and hence, finally, the im- perative necessity of insisting that each party keep inviolate its pledged word. Both capital and labor have greatly sinned in this last regard. If good faith is destroyed, if agree- ments are ruthlessly broken, as has happened in the declaration of many a strike by labor, and the violation of many a pact by capital, then all hope of concord and conciliation is at an end. Peace is then but the truce of the jungle when each waits for the opportunity to fall upon the other at the best advantage. It is the duty of the State to see that agreements are faithfully kept and violations of them are promptly and effectively punished. One of CHRISTIAN' PEACE 45 the war cries of Red radicalism is that pledges should not be made or, if made, must not be kept. A special source of labor discontent, and an incentive to inordinate demands on labor's own part, are the enormous profits of individual capi- talists, not seldom obtained by unconscionable prof- iteering, by immoral business methods, or by open robbery of the public. Equally exasperating to labor, and productive of Socialism and anarchism within its ranks, is the false use made of enormous fortunes, whether justly or unjustly acquired. A return to Christian ideals of living and Christian principles of steward- ship is necessary, first and foremost, for the solution of the social problem. Without this there can be no hope for a true social readjustment. Finally, universal peace is possible upon no other basis than the acceptance of the Church's teachings on social justice and Christian charity by both capital and labor. The latter is not justified in striking simply for "all it can get," nor is the former permitted to restrict wages and favorable conditions of emplo}Tnent purely to what labor can exact through strikes and intimidations. A peace upon such terms is but a lull before the storm. Christ alone can still the wrestling elements and bid the 46 ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION class war cease, if men will but accept His word. IV. Arbitration and Conciliation* In the meantime arbitration, as we said, should as far as possible prevent future strikes and lockouts. But this is not to be understood in the sense of a compulsory act by whose decision both parties are bound to abide. Such arbitration has failed woeful- ly where it was applied under the most favorable circumstances in Australia and introduced by the labor party itself. The system to be adopted is rather one similar to that for a long time employed in Canada. It con- sists in the application of the principle of investiga- tion previous to any strike or lockout, and so seeks amicably and reasonably to adjust industrial differ- ences, without taking away from either party the right of strike or lockout if they fail to abide by the decision made. In the words of Sir George Askwith : "It legalizes the community's right to intervene in a trade dispute by enacting that a stoppage, either by strike or lockout, shall not take place until the community, through a governmental department, has investigated the difference with the object of as- certaining if a recommendation cannot be made to *Consult: "The World Problem," pp. 117-122. ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION 47 the parties which both can accept as a settlement of the difference." The possibihties of settlement by discussion and negotiation are thus exhausted before a stoppage of work is permitted. Even when the recommenda- tions thus made are not accepted they form a basis on which a future settlement can be reached. They can also powerfully help rightly and intelligently to direct public opinion, which may prove a mighty factor in the final settlement. Referring to this measure in his book on "The Morality of the Strike" and quoting at greater length from the report of Sir George Askwith, Father McLean concludes: "The effectiveness of the Canadian method as compared with the Compulsory Arbitration law of Australia is quite apparent. During the years 1914- 18 the total number of strikes in Canada has been 506 — scarcely one- fourth the number which occurred in the same period in Australia, where illegal strikes numbered 1,945. The effectiveness of the measure of settling the industrial disputes is seen from the fact that, although the decisions are not obligatory, yet during the period from March 22, 1907, to March 31, 19 19, it failed to avert strikes in only twenty-two of the disputes that came within the scope of the Act." (Pp. 165, 166.) 48 Fourth Chapter Woman at the Wheel of Industry The Woman Laborer No purely human institution can ever be con- cerned so profoundly for the welfare of woman as is the Church of God. Nowhere can woman be so .greatly honored as where devotion to Mary Im- maculate has called forth in the hearts of men a new reverence for womankind. Nowhere can there ever be presented to woman herself an ideal so perfect as the Catholic conception of the Mother of God. But it is especially to the woman acquainted with the hardships of daily toil that the Church can offer her tenderest help and happiest consolation. Was not Mary herself the lowly bride of the humble carpenter of Nazareth? Were not her hands, like those of Joseph and of Jesus, inured to labor from her youth? Near then to her, and dear to the Church, that mystic Spouse of Christ, is the woman worker, whether her lot be cast in office, shop or in domestic service. Her livery of patient duty is the same as that which Christ had worn. Honorable is woman's work, whether it be that of faithful motherhood or of daily labor in the world's great mart. woman's ideal place 49 /. Woman's Ideal Place* Labor is the lot of man: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." But woman was not made for idleness. Riches can merely impose upon her a greater responsibility and open to her a large sphere of usefulness. They cannot in the least excuse her from earnest and daily service. The woman parasite who lives for fashion, luxury and pleasure, be she ever so wealthy and refined in worldly culture, is a menace to society. Immeas- urably above her, in the scale of human worth as of heavenly grace, stands the poor struggling working girl, who combats poverty and vice by fidelity to her lowly duties, and with the love of God gilds all her work. But if the Qiurch acknowledges the economic necessity that often drives woman into industry, she no less clearly insists that this is not her ideal place. "Woman," says Pope Leo XIII., "is by nature fitted for home-work, and it is that which is best adapted to preserve her modesty and promote the good up- bringing of children and the well-being of the family." Our first Christian duty, therefore, in the social sphere, is to make provision that will enable the ♦Consult: "The World Problem," chapter xxii. 50 woman's ideal place mother of the family to perform her needed functions in the home. This is possible only by assuring to the father of the family the full family wage. But husband and wife, too, must co-operate towards this end by thrift and moderation. There is a wasteful- ness on the part of the rich and the poor, in our day, which must be remedied by a Christian re- formation of the individual before we can reason- ably hope to reform society at large. The plea that woman must find occupation in industry because she can no longer find it in the home is a specious argument of the modern paganism. The true Catholic mother knows that her tasks are all-engrossing, and that the day seems but too short to fulfil them properly. Delightful as love may make her duties, they are tiring, none the less, and often exhaust all her youthful energies. Nothing can be more senseless than the cry of idle hands, raised by society dames. A thousand services of Christian charity and education are clamoring for all the strength that woman may have to spare from her household duties. The pro- motion of social justice, too, lies within her power. It is our sacred task, through organization, litera- ture and instruction, to point out and open up to her the countless channels of social helpfulness, ^id WOMAN IN THE LABOR WORLD 51 SO to Utilize to the full her great possibilities for good in society no less than in the home. But first and foremost, for wife and mother, are her function in her own domestic circle with which no others must be permitted to enter into conflict or rivalry. //. Woman in the Labor World* Yet, with all that we have said, the fact remains that a vast number of women are obliged, for a time at least, to find occupation and seek their liveli- hood elsewhere than in the home. It is with these that we are here concerned. Fully admitting such conditions, our duty is none the less to combat the philosophy of Socialism and the false feminism, which would insist that this is woman's normal sphere, and that she must everywhere take her place by the side of man in the outer world of production and distribution. It is all part of the diabolical design to destroy the Christian home and to hold up its pure ideals to scorn and obloquy. Complete economic independence is postulated for every woman to abolish the headship of the father of the family, and to make marriage dissoluble at a mere whim. Such is the ultimate purpose in view. ♦Consult : "The World Problem," chapter xxiii ; "Demo- cratic Industry," pp. 215-218. 52 WOMAN IN THE LABOR WORLD Whatever agitators may proclaim, the great ma- jority of married women will gladly escape the outer industrial life to center their attention as well as their affection upon the home, whose happiness and success must mainly depend upon them. They are not wrong in believing that they are doing one of the world's most precious, great and noble works. Yet it is equally true that the vast majority of un- married women must be engaged in gainful occupa- tions outside of their own domestic circle. Hence the woman laborer will still remain an economic necessity of our times, whatever her own private wishes may be. The woman-labor problem, in its present com- plexity, is comparatively of modern date. Ancient paganism allowed its women of wealth to corrupt in idle luxury, while countless others of their sex were bound to the torturing wheel of slavery, enduring sufferings mental, physical and moral, while helping in their own turn to the corruption of society. Modern commercialism, begotten in post-Refor- mation times, again dragged woman from her rightful position to which Christianity had elevated her, when "the sanctity of weakness was recognized as well as the sanctity of sorrow." It is to capital- PROTECTING THE WOMAN WORKER 53 ism, in so far only as it dissociated religion from economics under the new industrialism, that we here refer. For this heartless Mammon worship there was no sacredness in womankind, in wifehood or in holiest motherhood. Woman was merely to supply the cheap labor of the world ; she was ground down by inhuman toil and wasted away with endless hours of work, while her little ones were forced to follow her into the grimy factory, or slave by her side at the sweated tasks of the dismal attic room. Worst of all, she was thus used to depress still more the wages of the father of the family. Long and bitter was the suffering of the woman laborer, great was the injustice done to her. ///. Protecting the Woman Worker* Woman's position of dignity in the Christian home was won for her by the Catholic Church. The same elements that led to the rejection of the Church's doctrine also led to the renewed degrada- tion of woman. Liberalism and industrialism were but the offsprings of the Reformation, as is now well known and freely admitted by competent authorities. The Church has never lost her solicitude for woman, and in particular does her sympathy go ♦Consult : "The World Problem," chapter xxiv. 54 PROTECTING THE WOMAN" WORKER out to the woman worker in our day. Hence the active interest we are called upon to manifest in her regard. Care must be taken, first of all, in the choice of occupation to which woman can be safely admitted. "Women," says Pope Leo XIIL, "are not suited for certain occupations." This fact public authorities were forced to admit even under the very stress of war conditions. Practically the very words of the Holy Father were used by the Government officials of the United States in their labor declarations. In structure, function, character and aptitude, women differ from men. To ignore this in our industrial life is worse than folly. So also in the circumstances of the work itself assigned to the woman worker, there is need of protecting her from conditions physically or morally injurious or dangerous to her. It is necessary to safeguard her from excessive burdens, undue strain, prolonged hours, night labor and whatsoever else may be prejudicial to her sex, or to her present or future maternity. In particular must her virtue and modesty be held free from hazard both in the choice and circumstances of her occupation. Indirectly motherhood should be protected for the nation's good by removing all those conditions PROTECTING THE WOMAN" WORKER 55 which make it necessary for the mother of the ifamily to enter into industrial life. Hence the supreme need of a family wage for the father, as has already been clearly stated, that woman in the home may devote her first and best energies to the children with whom God may bless her. How intimately wages are connected with the life of the child born in the laborer's home was vividly illustrated by the findings of the Children's Bureau of the United States Labor Department, in its investigations into infant mortality conditions in New Bedford, Mass. Unskilled and semi-skilled occupations predominated in the local cotton mills. Practically all the mothers, the report stated, were in families where the father earned less than the amount necessary to maintain a decent standard of living. As a result half of the mothers were gain- fully employed, chiefly in the cotton mills, before the baby was born, and two-fifths returned to their industrial occupations the year following the birth of the child. The consequence was that in the low- wage group twenty babies out of every hundred bom alive died before the end of the first year, while in the highest-wage groups only six out of every hundred babies died. Poor home sanitation, congestion in crowded tenement districts, lack of 56 PROTECTING THE WOMAN' WORKER adequate medical care, and a mother unable prop- erly to care for her child, are the circumstances that increase to such an awful extent the mortality of infants. To this must be added the impossibility of a proper intellectual, moral and religious training for the children. In its report on infant mortality in Akron, Ohio, the Children's Bureau thus summed up its conclusion: "This report gives further evi- dence of the fact shown in the previous studies of infant mortality by the Bureau, that as fathers' earn- ings increase, infant mortality falls." Minimum wage legislation is especially to be ap- plied in regard to the woman wage-earner that she may be assured a sufficient income for decent Christian self-support and reasonable recreation. There must be no need of partial dependence upon others, and provision for her future should be made economically possible for her. To Catholics, above all others, has the working woman a right to look for protection. Her well- being physical, recreational and intellectual, moral and religious, should be for us a question of the greatest concern. The Church, in turn, rightly impresses upon her the obligation of fidelity to her daily task, as well as the dignity of labor, in which she participates PROTECTING THE WOMAN' WORKER 57 with the Son of God. Constantly she holds out to her the greatness of the reward in store for her from the supreme Lord of all to whom her labors are offered up in the spirit of love and made meri- torious in His sight beyond the pomp of wealth and rank. Before His throne her modest dress and honest toil are unspeakably more precious than all the silks and satins of the world, its honors and its glories. There is no discrimination with Him be- tween rich and poor, except that His own lot in life was cast with the latter. Both must find their way to heaven by the self-same path, which is traveled most easily by them who are neither encumbered with riches nor weighed down with an oppressive poverty. 58 Fifth Chapter Capitalism, Past and Present Church and Capitalism That the Church is ranged on the side of capital- ism is an accusation repeatedly made in the SociaHst press. The purpose of such statements is to breed distrust in the mind of the worker, and to discredit for him the one institution that has ever been most profoundly concerned with his well-being, both temporal and spiritual. The history of the Catholic gilds, the industrial as well as political democracy fostered by the Church, and the splendid ecclesias- tical documents upon labor given us in recent times by Popes and Bishops, eloquently refute all such libels.* But if Socialism has consistently fought the Church because of her great interest in the labor- ing classes, capitalism has often been no less uneasy at the practical application of her principles. She teaches, indeed, the need of radical reconstruction; and nothing can be more radical than her continual insistence upon the renewal of all things in Christ. ♦What the Church has done for labor and democracy is fully described in "Democratic Industry." The ecclesiastical documents to which reference is made here can be found in the volume by Ryan-Husslein, "The Church and Labor." CHURCH AND CAPITALISM 59 This renewal must begin in the soul of the indi- vidual, extend to the home, and reach out finally into every ramification of the industrial and commercial life of a nation. Its attainment implies no less than the consummated reign of justice and charity in all our relations with our fellow men, public as well as private, social as well as domestic. Could any revolution be more radical than that? And yet the radicalism of the Church is far other than any the Socialist orator ever proposed. It is based on no Marxian gospel of fratricidal strife, but on the saving doctrine of the love of Christ. It teaches to all alike the need of unselfishness and sacrifice for the common good. It manifests itself in the preaching of duties no less than in the prot- .estation of rights. It favors neither capital nor labor, but seeks to unite them both under the law of God and in the charity that knows no bounds of rank or wealth. The position of the Church is one of absolute impartiality, no matter how much her motives may be misrepresented in the eyes of men. She is neither capitalist nor Socialist, but ever holds her place in the van of all true social progress. 60 PRIVATE CAPITAL /. Private Capital* The Church has never condemned any real Chris- tian system of economics that is based on private ownership of productive property, i. e., of capital. Such a system, kept within the bounds of strict justice and not permitted to infringe upon the su- preme rights of the public welfare, must, however, be clearly distinguished from that historic form of capitalism which finds its strongest condemnation in the Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII. "On the Con- dition of Labor." A just system of private capital will not exclude pmblic ownership to whatever extent the common good may strictly require it, provided always that due compensation is made to private owners. Neither, however, will it permit the introduction of public ownership where public control or supervision of existing industries suffices. Lastly, it will not allow State interference to be carried beyond that point where the general well-being actually de- mands it. Historically there has never been a period where the private possession of capital was not the eco- nomic basis of society. This held true equally of *Consult: "The World Problem." pp. 35, 36 and Chapter XXI. HISTORIC CAPITALISM 61 the palmiest days of the Catholic gilds. It was against the abuses arising from the undue concen- tration of capital in the hands of a few that the voice of the Church was raised at all times. The purpose of the Church was never the forcible aboli- tion of private productive property, which is the ultimate aim of Socialism, but rather its widest reasonable and just diffusion among the people. Such, too, was the aim and object of the medieval gilds. Attempts at communism have from time to time been made in civil society, but all have ended in failure. Bolshevism, with its degeneracy into a worse than Czarist absolutism, has been the latest example. Communism has flourished nowhere ex- cept in the Religious Orders where it is practised voluntarily and for the love of God. //. Historic Capitalism* Capitalism, as we know it historically, is the economic system which grew out of the Reformation at a period when the social principles of the Church had ceased to influence industrial and commercial life. It stood in complete opposition to the tradi- *Consult: "The World Problem," Chapter IV; "Demo- cratic Industry," Chapter XXVIII. 62 HISTORIC CAPITALISM tional economic system of Catholic times, which had preceded it, and indeed to all the social ideals of the Church. Both capitalism and the Church favored in gen- eral the private ownership of productive property. The essential difference was that whereas the Church desired this ownership to be shared by as many of the workers as possible, capitalism tended to wrest it from them entirely and concentrate it in the hands of a few who formed a monied class apart from the manual workers. A policy of non-interference in industrial and commercial matters, both on the part of the State and of private organizations, was the first demand of the new capitalistic system which now arose. Hence the name of laissez faire. The only right and duty ascribed to the State by this false economic theory was the enforcement of all legal contracts, however much at variance they might be with justice and the natural law. Under such provision the legal suppression of all labor unions was suc- cessfully carried out. Without protection of law or gild, the weak were relentlessly delivered over to the merciless exploitation of the strong, and the State became a police force to keep the laborer in subjection. HISTORIC CAPITALISM 63 The second feature of this system was the almost exclusive domination of money-capital in the eco- nomic field. Labor lost not merely its participation in ownership, but also in the control and manage- ment of the means of production on which its liveli- hood depended. Money ruled the world. The third feature followed from the former two. It was the subordination of all other considerations to the unrestricted accumulation of personal gain. A man guilty of heaven-crying sins: of the crime of withholding a just wage from his employees, prevented from exercising their right of collective bargaining; of the heartless oppression of women and children, enslaved under the most unnatural working conditions; of the unregarded death of hapless toilers, made the victims of easily avoidable accidents or industrial diseases, where a compara- tively slight financial outlay might have saved the health and life of many, was none the less honored for his wealth as an unblemished gentleman by a society deprived of its Catholic teachings and traditions. Conscientious employers, needless to say, suf- fered hardly less than the workers themselves. They were obliged to meet, as best they could, the condi- tions of an unchristian competition, imposed on them 64 HISTORIC CAPITALISM by this pagan system, or else face bankruptcy and ruin. The "evils of monopoly," consisting in an arti- ficial raising of prices, limitation of output and a deterioration in quality, were at times morally on a level with confiscation and the practice of sabo- tage. Wealth sought purely for its own sake, wealth acquired without a thought of the common good, wealth spent as if it gave its owner a right to any luxury that it can purchase, is a public scandal. Wealth means public responsibility, means steward- ship in the name of God. If understood in any other sense it is a public evil. No wonder then that the vices of an unchristian capitalism in turn de- moralized labor. What wonder if the latter was affected by the same principles and entertained the same selfish desires. The lesson taught it by too many of our immense corporations, our men of business and dames of leisure was that there is nothing in life worth while except wealth and pleas- ure. Under such conditions even the increase in wages cannot create a true contentment. The spirit itself of such a doctrine must first g^ve way to that other spirit which is of Christ. PRESENT-DAY CAPITALISM 65 ///. Present-Day Capitalism Capitalism, as to-day it exists, has perforce been changed considerably. The historic description must, to say the least, be greatly modified. The principle of non-interference, whose great apostle was Adam Smith, has in practice been broken down both by countless State legislations, and by the rapidly increasing activity of labor unionism. A danger, which Christian unionists must now avert, is that organized labor may at times seek to reverse the role, and with its assumption of political influence forget the common good in the eager promotion of its own advantages. This would mean no less than general ruin. Everywhere and from every point of view there is a great need of socially educated Christian labor unionists. The second stronghold of historic capitalism, the absolute power of money-capital and its exclusive control and management of industry, is also fast being shaken. Many concessions have been made and many a truce has been concluded. But this is a subject to be treated more fully in the following chapters. The last characteristic of historic capitalism, and the root of our modern evils, is the inordinate de- sire for gain, to which all other considerations. 66 PRESENT-DAY CAPITALISM whether of humanity or religion, were remorselessly sacrificed. On this point modern labor may in future sin as signally as capitalism, unless Christian prin- ciples are adopted. Among employers we may here discern a clear division of spirits. A large and criminal class still adheres to the old capitalistic methods refined by all our modern financial ingenuity. They are known under the name of "profiteers" and constitute the economic decadents and degenerates of our age. They rank with the anarchists and Bolshevists whom they claim to hold in such abhorrence, and, indeed, are far more dangerous than these. The destructive radicalism of the time is mainly bred by them. The extortionate demands of labor, where such occur, are based upon their example, and have not seldom been made in connivance with the cap^ italist profiteer. When this comes about the public has doubly fallen into the hands of robbers! Lastly, however, we find among employers, as among laborers, those who earnestly and sincerely desire the welfare of the entire community, who are actuated by high and Christian principles, who honestly look for the coming of a new social read- justment in which the common good shall be the first consideration, where social justice and Chris- PRESENT-DAY CAPITALISM 67 tian charity shall reign, where peace and harmony shall be restored to society, where, in a word, the golden rule shall once for all supplant the rule of gold. Many are the qualities that must combine to form the ideal Catholic business man. Seldom are they all found in their perfection in a single indi- vidual. Like the perfect knight of old, he should be a man without fear and without reproach. Faith should be the loadstone of his life. He should not exalt himself in his own conceit above others who may chance to be his inferiors in the commercial or industrial life, nor should he sway a finger's breadth from Christian principles to gain the favor and support of men of influence. Wealth should have for him no supreme attractiveness in itself, but should be welcomed as affording possibilities of greater service in the interests of Christ, as a trust for the poor, and in stewardship for God. He should ever place above all things the Divine ap- proval expressed in the joyful greeting of his Lord: "Well done, good and faithful servant." In spite of wealth and power, his greatest commenda- tion at life's close should be that he was ever num- bered among "the poor in spirit." Can this ideal be realized? It certainly can, or the Church would not propose it in her teaching. 68 Sixth Chapter Democracy in Industry Social Reconstruction The demand for a popular rather than a merely national prosperity, absorbed by a few, is daily growing stronger. Labor is gradually participating more and more fully in the fruits of industry. The spirit of democracy is abroad. Its breath is felt in the factory and workshop. The ancient Catholic gild ideals are in many ways reasserting themselves in the minds of men and finding expression in various plans of social reconstruction. All this is well, provided it is kept within the bounds of justice and right reason. There is danger that labor as well as capital may follow selfish ends. Christian principles must dominate the revival of gild ideas as we now find them expressed under many names, the most popular of which is doubtless "Industrial Democracy." /. Proletarian Dictatorship* Industrial Democracy has received as many defi- nitions as there are classes of men who employ the expression. To some it conveys no other idea than the gross conception of a proletarian dictatorship. ♦Consult: "Democratic Industry," pp. 325, 326. PROLETARIAN DICTATORSHIP 69 Heaven-high and hell-deep is the distance separat- ing Christian industrial democracy, such as existed in the best days of the Catholic gilds, from the dreams of the new godless "dictatorship of the masses," advocated even in our midst by Socialist agitators. Claiming to sweep aside all class distinctions, it would in reality replace class rule by class rule. On the ruins of former systems and institutions, it would establish a new tyranny far worse than the old. In practice it implies the absolute autocracy of a few mob leaders. Unnatural as it is tyrannical, it can but last through a period of bloody orgies, when it must gradually give place to a more sane and demo- cratic form of government, whether by internal transformation or by new and bloody civil wars. It is unjust because based upon robbery. It is irreligious because it would destroy alike the author- ity of God and man, while at the same time it would subject all to its own relentless system of espionage and oppr£Ssion, extending over the school and press, reaching even into the sanctuary and the home, and tearing down the altars of religion. Honest labor is reduced by it to slavery while militarism rules supreme. Liberty of press and platform is at an end. We have seen its hand at work in many lands and know its nature. 70 PROLETARIAN DICTATORSHIP Such is Socialism in its extreme form of Bol- shevism. Yet even when expressing itself in more moderate ways, it always aims to transfer, to a greater or less extent, the means of production into the public dominion. The actual result of this is to deliver the people themselves into the power of a despotic State, governed relentlessly by a small So- cialistic bureaucracy. It thus becomes more danger- ous to popular liberty than any form of autocratic capitalism that it may claim to supplant. Hunger and machine guns kept the worker in submission under Bolshevism. Historically, every form of So- cialism has made the destruction of religion a primary aim. It matters not what the intentions of individual Socialists to the contrary may be. How far all this is removed from the idea of Christian Democracy is clear from the Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, upon this subject. He thus describes the Catholic ideal of Christian brotherhood: "Christian Democracy is built on the basic prin- ciples of Divine faith, and provides for the better- ment of the masses, with the ulterior object of avail- ing itself of the occasion to fashion their minds for things which are everlasting. Hence for Christian Democracy justice is sacred; it must maintain that the right of acquiring and possessing property can- PROLETARIAN DICTATORSHIP 71 not be impunged, and it must safeguard the vari- ous distinctions and degrees which are indispensable in every well-ordered commonwealth. Finally it must endeavor to preserve in every human society the form and the character which God ever im- presses upon it. It is clear therefore that there is nothing in common between Socialism and Chris- tian Democracy. "Moreover it would be a crime to distort this name of Christian Democracy to politics, for al- though democracy, both in its philological and philosophical signification, implies popular govern- ment, yet in its present application it is so to be employed that, removing from it all political sig- nificance, it is to mean nothing else than a benevolent and Christian movement in behalf of the people. "In the same manner, from Christian Democracy we must remove another possible subject of reproach, namely: that while looking after the advantage of the working people we should act in such a manner as to forget the upper classes of society; for they also are of the greatest use in preserving and per- fecting the commonwealth. As we have explained, the Christian law of charity will prevent us from so doing. For it extends to all society, and all should be treated as members of the same family, as chil- 72 CATHOLIC INDUSTRIAL IDEALS dren of the same Heavenly Father, as redeemed by the same Saviour, and called to the same eternal heritage. Hence the doctrine of the Apostle who warns us that: 'We are one body and one spirit called to the one hope in our vocation; one Lord, one Faith and one Baptism; one God and the Fa- ther of all who is above all, and through all, and in us all.' Wherefore on account of the nature of the union which exists between the different classes of society and which Christian brotherhood makes still closer, it follows that no matter how great our de- votion may be in helping the people, we should all the more keep our hold upon the upper classes, be- cause association with them is proper and necessary, for the happy issue of the work in which we are engaged." //. Catholic Industrial Ideals* The industrial ideals of the Church can be clearly ascertained from her traditions of Catholic times, so far as her influence was heeded in the gild-life of the past; and from the ringing social pronounce- ments of her Hierarchy in more recent days. This we have already pointed out. She never contents herself with a purely negative attitude, but while ♦Consult: "The World Problem," Chapter XXV; "Demo- cratic Industry," passim. CATHOLIC INDUSTRIAL IDEALS 73 stigmatizing the moral defects of false social move- ments, she does not fear to set forth her own con- structive ideas. In their immediate demands her spokesmen, in modern times, have urged such measures as could bring direct benefits to thi working classes. They have upheld the just rights of the worker and de- fended his legitimate aspirations. They have gone further and have envisaged the industrial democracy of the future in the light of the Church's traditional past. In opposition to both Socialism and the Reformation capitalism, they have set forth the ideal of a wider distribution of the private owner- ship of productive property, long ago proposed by Pope Leo XIII. as the foundation of the new re- construction. Definite application of this teaching was made by the American Bishops in their first ennunciation of the principle that: "The majority must somehow become owners, at least in part, of the instruments of production." ("Social Recon- struction," p. 22.) To bring this about a study of our Catholic his- toric past, with its gild ideals (see "Democratic Industry"), is imperative. Of particular importance, as the Bishops state, is the gradual extension of cooperation and copartnership, in which the gild 74 LOOKING TOWARDS THE DAWN principles find their practical applications in our day. These are developments, however, that can not be hastily precipitated. They suppose education equally on the part of the employer and the laborer. They suppose thrift, industry, perseverance and in- telligence, often so little cultivated and yet of such vital necessity for all who would avail themselves of their opportunities. The fatal levelling process, by which an equal reward and an equal voice in in- dustry is to be rashly given to all, no matter how unskilled, unthrifty, uneconomic or idle in their methods of work, is a world removed from the true industrial democracy of the gilds, which assured to each man his opportunity, but demanded of him in turn a careful preparation and a full test of worthi- ness, economically, morally and religiously, before he was admitted to a position of responsibility and a participation in the free conduct of his industry. It will not be impossible to apply to our own large- scale industries the gild ideals of the Middle Ages. ///. Looking Towards the Dazvn* A beginning has been made in social reconstruc- tion. While Socialism was proclaiming its extreme demands, and destructively enforcing them in many ♦Consult : "Democratic Industry," Chapter XXX. LOOKING TOWARDS THE DAWN 75 lands, there were not a few prudent and wise em- ployers of labor who sought in their own turn to approach nearer to the Catholic ideals we have de- scribed. Many have been beforehand in their efforts to provide improved conditions of labor. Intelli- gence and altruism have frequently combined to bring about friendly relations. Profit-sharing has been tried in many and various ways. Copartner- ship plans have not seldom proved successful, and the desire of labor to participate in the control and management of economic enterprises, on their in- dustrial side, has often been freely conceded and even generously anticipated. Particular attention may here be called to the pro- gram of the British Quaker Employers, which met with approval on the part of the Bishops forming the Administraive Committee of the National Catholic War Council. These employers not merely insisted on the right of labor to organize and bar- gain collectively — which is not open to debate — but also desired the workers to participate in the indus- trial part of the business management. This partici- pation was explained by them as extending to "the control of processes and machinery; nature of product; engagement and dismissal of employees; hours of work; rates of pay; bonuses, etc.; welfare 76 LOOKING TOWARDS THE DAWN work ; shop discipline ; relations with trade unions." Applications of more or less democratic principles to shop organization have now become sufficiently familiar. The first to arouse general attention in England and America were the Whitley plan in Great Britain and the Leitch plan and Filene plan in the United States. The degree of industrial de- mocracy naturally differed greatly in the various schemes as actually applied. Long ago Victor Cathrein, S.J. had advocated the creation of shop committees to be made obli- gatory in all the industries. Their purpose was to be the adjustment of difficulties between employers and working-men. The latter were to elect their representatives, authorized to submit to the em- ployer the desires and requests of the men, and to confer with him upon all these points. {Moral- philosophic, I, p. 628.) The shop-committee plan as endorsed by the American Catholic Bishops goes much further. It embraces participation in the industrial part of the business management by the committee, working where possible in conjunction with the trade union : "There can be no doubt that a frank adoption of these means and ends by employers would not only promote the welfare of the workers, but vastly LOOKING TOWARDS THE DAWN 77 improve the relations between them and their employers, and increase the efficiency and produc- tiveness of each establishment." ("Social Recon- struction," p. 19.) As for the progress of the cooperative idea, we need but quote here a single example from the Bulletin of the Ail-American Cooperative Commis- sion : "British workers may now have their houses built by the cooperative building gild, furnished by the furniture-workers' cooperative gild, equipped to the last detail by the various factories of the Co- operative Wholesale Society, and insured by the Cooperative Assurance Society, all on a non-profit basis." So we have in reality progressed a great way towards a modern application of the Catholic gild idea, whose full realization can be found in the perfect development of the Christian concept of cooperation and copartnership, of which we shall treat more fully in the following chapter. Not class struggle, but class harmony is the Catholic solution. Yet, we must not delude ourselves into believing that this can be brought about without the aid of religion. 78 Seventh Chapter Copartnership and Cooperation Modern* Gild Ideals The solution of the industrial problem, as Pius X. wisely pointed out, can best be found in the appli- cation of the medieval gild ideal to modern condi- tions. The little workshop, with perhaps its two journeymen and its single apprentice, under a skill- ful and experienced master gildsman, has given way to the extensive factory with its mighty engines served by hundreds or even thousands of busy la- borers. The old relations have been severed that made the journeyman as an elder son in his em- ployer's family, while the apprentice looked for his physical and spiritual welfare no less than for his advance in technical skill to the master, who re- ceived him in sacred trust under his own roof-tree. Yet it does not follow that the new order, which was introduced with the invention of machinery, cannot in turn be humanized and Christianized. /. Copartnership and Profit-SIiarmg Not a little of the medieval gild ideal is contained in the system of copartnership. It establishes a certain fellowship between employers and employed, the more close in proportion as the laborer partici- COPARTNERSHIP AND PROFIT-SHARING 79 pates more intimately in the interests and more largely in the dividends of the business with which he is linked, not as a wage-earner merely, but as a "partner." One of the main objections urged against profit- sharing and copartnership schemes is that the worker is willing indeed to divide the profits with his employer, but hesitates to share in his losses. Experience has shown in many instances that such is not necessarily the case. Workers, under these circumstances, have been found willing to take the initiative in suggesting such reductions of wages as they realized were necessary for the safety of the industry and its future prosperity. An instance in point is that cited by Col. P. H. Callahan in the Fortnightly Review. He thus re- counts his own experience in profit-sharing during a period of industrial depression : "During times of prosperity our employees shared equally with the capital invested, in the ratio of their monthly and weekly wages, the profits which the company produced. Before the end of the year, when they were advised of the actual con- dition of affairs and given details in figures of the loss w^hich was being encountered, they were asked to make suggestions and recommendations as to 80 COPARTNERSHIP AND PROFIT-SHARING what could be done to meet the extraordinary con- ditions existing. We found them making recom- mendations for the curtailment of the number of employees. Later, when there was no improvement after the first year, they suggested that inasmuch as the company had shared with them its profits during prosperity, they expected to share its losses as much as possible during the time of adversity, to the end that they accepted cheerfully a reduction in wages of twenty per cent, with the assurance that every- body connected with the firm in any capacity would make the same concession." In regard to the reduction of working forces, the laborers' committee concluded that the old em- ployees were to be retained, and that necessary dis- missals should take place from among those who had been engaged during the two previous years of prosperity. "This spirit of industrial coopera- tion," Col. Callahan adds, "cannot be achieved in a day, and can only be produced by coming clean with the facts and figures, so that everybody will know the actual conditions existing, to the same extent as the proprietors." He further considers it important that there should be representation on the part of the employees "in directing matters on which their lives, their families and their future depend." COOPERATION 81 There are many varieties of copartnership and profit-sharing, not all equally advantageous to the worker. But no system of whatever kind must ever be allowed to take the place, even in the slightest degree, of the living wage. Only when this has been fully assured to the laborer can there be ques- tion of supplementing it by other methods, so far as the employer is concerned. //. Cooperation Copartnership plans do not offer the same diffi- culties that present themselves in cooperative pro- duction, though here we find the closest approxima- tion to the gild ideal. Cooperative buying and selling as well as co- operative credit associations have proved eminently successful and have been widely adopted in all countries. The farmer, too, has in various ways profited greatly by cooperative methods. In these instances, therefore, the cooperative system is no longer on trial, although it would be rash to intro- duce it an)rwhere without the proper education and preparation. Even in the United States, which has perhaps been the last of the great countries of the world to interest itself extensively in the idea of cooperation, 82 COOPERATION we find that the cooperative movement had won such strength that as early as 19 17 the American Federation of Labor appointed a special committee on this subject. It earnestly recommended to the workers the Rochdale cooperative system, which had been so continuously successful in Great Britain, and thus outlined its principles : 1. A democratic organization. 2. One vote for each member with equality in share ownership. 3. Cash returns quarterly to members of the difference between the total amount they have paid for their purchases and the lesser cost of these pur- chases to the cooperative society. This cost includes depreciation and a reasonable amount set aside for a reserve fund to meet emergencies and extend the business. 4. Rejection of the principle of profits. 5. Current interest on loan capital. 6. Sales, where possible, preferably to members only. 7. Distributive cooperation to precede produc- tive. 8. A sufficient number of retail stores to be established to assure a market before a wholesale department is created. COOPERATIVE PRODUCTION 83 9. Observance of methods recommended by the International Cooperative Alliance. The cooperative movement, in fine, was strongly recommended as a "twin remedy" with the trade union, that while one is to secure adequate wages the other may secure full value in the purchases made with these wages: "Each is in a degree be- yond measure a factor in the economic, social, political and educational development of the wage- earning masses." ///. Cooperative Production But while no one can doubt the success of co- operative trading, which at once removes an army of middlemen; or of cooperative credit systems, which have certainly brought untold blessings to the farm- ing population in particular ; or even of cooperation in various productive processes upon the land, such as dairying, there still remains considerable hesita- tion in regard to cooperative production in industry. Competition, on the part of labor, with the countless millions at the disposal of capitalist corporations is no easy task. And yet even in this field, too, coopera- tion has scored not a few successes, although it has also met with many failures. It supposes that the workers purchase or newly establish their own 84 COOPERATIVE PRODUCTION manufacturing plants, of which they are to possess the shares of stock individually, and which they will manage through their own chosen representatives. Cooperative production, thus understood, is pri- vate ownership in the strictest sense of the word, although it differs from capitalism as greatly as it is removed from Socialism. It embraces the perfect social ideal under the modern system of production, but all can realize how difficult it is of attainment in our large-scale industry. Here, as in all great democratic developments in industry, there is need of religion. The Catholic Church was the greatest factor in these developments that history has known, as the craft gilds, sustained for centuries by her spirit in all that was wisest and noblest in them, bear ample testimony. She can again become the mightiest factor in the solution of the social prob- lems today. Cooperation calls for that true brother- hood which she alone can give in its perfection. But aside from all this, there is need of no little education in cooperative efforts, no little personal acumen, strength of character and perseverance for the workers to struggle successfully with the great problem of cooperative production. That they have done so in not a few instances is a great triumph and a promise of a better future. To the possibility MODERN GILD SYSTEMS 85 of cooperative production undertaken on a large plan I shall devote the following chapter. Cooperative enterprises may never entirely dis- place the capitalist system, nor may this be desir- able, but they can at least be conducted on a far larger scale, side by side with it. The future does not lie with Socialism, whose failure is sufficiently clear, nor with capitalism as we have known it in the past, but there is every reason to look for a great and intelligent development of the cooperative idea. IV. Modern Gild Systems As a further application of the gild idea, often intermingled with philosophical and sociological fallacies, we have the many modern systems advo- cating not merely economic, but also political or- ganization according to industries and professions. Each interest of importance is thus to be represented by its own delegated experts in the councils of the nations. Leading Catholic sociologists strongly favor in- dustrial organizations that shall embrace both employers and employed, thus creating a solidarity between them in the development and protection of their mutual interests and at the same time breaking down the old capitalistic over-lordship to make way 86 MODERN GILD SYSTEMS for a true democracy, socially and economically, where the common good shall be promoted by all. State authority is to be invoked wherever other legitimate means do not suffice to bring about this end. The false mechanistic idea of society is to give way to the Catholic concept of the social organism in which all parts cooperate for the general welfare. Hence also the name of "solidarism" given by many to this Catholic social system. Writing in Studies of that particular aspect of the "plan system" by which different industries were to be set up as self-governing bodies in Germany, officially recognized by the State, Father Constantin Noppel, S.J., said: "Their idea was that the com- mon good rather than private gain of individual capitalists should be the guiding principle in the economic life of the country. . . . The industrial system was to be lifted out of its atomic individual- ism. The gilds of the Middle Ages were to reap- pear in a modern form as self-governing bodies. . . . These principles, stripped of Mollendorf's extravagant and ill-digested methods, are still guid- ing principles for the most widely different circles of German economic thought." Similarly all that is best and noblest in the Gild Socialism of England was inspired by the medieval MODERN GILD SYSTEMS 87 gilds. Yet Gild Socialists, desiring to hand over to the State the possession of all the industries, to be managed by those engaged in them, is seriously at fault in striking at the foremost gild principle. This consists in the safeguarding of private productive property together with the promotion of the widest just distribution of ownership among the masses, to be brought about neither by revolution nor con- fiscation, but by methods and laws in full conformity with the laws of nature and the Gospel of Christ. 88 Eighth Chapter Labor and Capital in One Is Cooperative Production Workable? Christian economists, imbued with the traditions of the Church and the social teachings of the Holy See, will agree in their outline of the ideal industrial order. It is equally removed from Socialism on the one hand, and from every form of capitalistic greed on the other. It must safeguard the posses- sion of private property in the most perfect of all possible ways, by preventing its accumulation in the hands of a few and promoting its utmost diffusion, by just and legal means, among the people. But for this purpose no more thorough solution can be offered than cooperative production, so far as it may be feasible under our modern system of large-scale manufacture, /. A Christian Ideal Yet it Is one thing to propose this as an ideal, and quite another to maintain that It Is practically possible at any given time. The American Bishops who signed the document on "Social Reconstruc- tion" had plainly this ideal in their minds, yet they did not insist, even in their vision of the future, upon its complete realization. They were willing A CHRISTIAN IDEAL 89 to place side by side with it the more easily work- able plan of simple copartnership. But they wished nonetheless clearly to encourage, to the utmost just and reasonable extent, the development of co- operative production, in which the workers individ- ually own the shares of the factories or establish- ments in which they labor, and collectively manage the operation of these industries through their chosen representatives. Such is the Catholic con- cept of cooperative production. The essence of Socialism is ownership of the means of production by the community, the essence of Red Syndicalism is collective ownership of each industry by the men engaged in it. I refer here merely to their economic side. Cooperative pro- duction, in its Catholic sense, is the extreme anti- thesis of all these systems. It opposes to every form of collective ownership, no less than to the post- Reformation form of capitalism, the perfect Catholic ideal of the widest diffusion of private ownership among the people without injustice to anyone, with- out compulsion of expropriation. It is thus the consummation of all that Popes and Bishops and Christian sociologists have fought and striven for these many years. There is but one question to be asked : "Is it workable ?" 90 A CHRISTIAN IDEAL Cooperative trading and cooperative banking, it will be granted, are problems that have been defi- nitely solved. There can be question only of a wider extension and development of these ideas and of the popular education that must precede and accompany their introduction into any community. As these lines were written the Order of Railroad Telegra- phers had just announced the establishment of its new bank with $300,000 capital. Similar banks had been established but shortly before by the Machin- ists' and the Engineers' unions. Nine million dollars in ten months was the rec- ord of this last named trade union bank. The Broth- erhood of Locomotive Engineers' National Bank of Cleveland, as it is called, opened November i, 1920, with resources of $650,971.77. In six months they had grown to $7,000,000. By September 10, 1921, this workingmen's bank had taken its place among the leading financial institutions of the city, with exactly $9,356,343.28 in its strong box. A new structure of twenty-one stories was to be erected for its business. The resources of the bank were to be used for productive purposes, "with the ideal of service kept constantly in view." Its profits were distributed among its working-people depositors. Surely a wiser proceeding than handing them over to Wall Street. WHEN LABOR BECOMES CAPITAL 91 Cooperative production, too, as we have said, has in many ways been successfully realized, as in dairying, farming and kindred employments. The question of supreme interest and importance is now the application of this same principle to the processes of manufacture. //. When Labor Becomes Capital Cooperative production in industry, as we have frequently stated here, has its own peculiar diffi- culties which account for the many failures in the past. But it has also won its signal victories. It is still decidedly a "venture." The greatest obstacle in its way is not the want of capital, which labor would be able to accumulate, but the want of prep- aration and education. Management would present no lasting difficulty; since labor could hire this as capital does today, at the same terms and under the same conditions. Labor, in fact, would then be capital as well, and there is no reason why it could not do what capitalism is doing now, so far as efficiency is concerned. Cooperative establishments would thus be conducted side by side with capital- istic institutions, and the latter, even should co- operation prove successful, would probably never be entirely supplanted. The main initial obstacle would 92 WHEN LABOR BECOMES CAPITAL be offered by that portion of entrenched capitahsm that is without conscience and without consideration for anything except its own aggrandizement. While far from agreeing with Mr. Cole on many points, or from accepting his Gild Socialism, we cannot fail to realize with him the opposition which a co- operative system, in its initial stages, is likely to meet from such corporations : **It would not only be systematically undersold, even at a loss; it would be held up or blackmailed for the raw materials, machinery, etc., which it would have to secure from other private firms. Even progressive employers in the engineering trades have sometimes found the difficulty of main- taining a low cost of production in face of the hos- tility of big combines ; and certainly these combines would spare no effort to crush out of existence a trade union competitor." To obviate this Mr. Cole would modify the trade unions along gild lines, and prepare them to take over entirely our large-scale industries. When that time has come the capitalist would be bought out compulsorily. We propose no such compulsory plan, although legal measures should certainly be taken, if necessary, to safeguard and even encourage cooperative production. Nor would we have the TAKING A LEAF FROM CAPITALISM 93 industries owned by the workers collectively, al- though this in itself is not opposed to any moral principle, provided the industries have first been justly acquired. "How, then," it will be asked, "can the cooperative ideal be realized?" To which I reply with the Irishman's answer: "How is the capitalists' corporation realized?" ///. Taking a Leaf From Capitalism Capitalist corporations avail themselves freely of borrowed capital. Their bonds, notes and preferred ■stock are purchased by the general public, which is little concerned with management, and rests con- tent with coupon-clipping. The corporation is con- trolled by the owners of the common stock, who engage a competent management. They not seldom • capitalize, not merely their ability and knowledge, but their shrewd speculations and hopes in lieu of the full amount of money that the stocks would seem to represent. To unscrupulous watering of stock are added other methods still more dangerous to unwary investors. The actual business pro- cesses are often dark and devious. Labor, the public, or perhaps the unsophisticated investor may pay the price for the millions that are pocketed by a few. But wrong as many of these methods are, 94 TAKING A LEAF FROM CAPITALISM labor may well copy whatever is just and right. Where cooperative production is attempted by a labor organization it can build or rent its factory and hire able management in the same market with capitalism. It can strictly retain its common stock for those actually engaged on its own working staff, from chairman and manager down to its office force, and its skilled and unskilled labor, while it issues its bonds and notes and preferred stock to all others who may wish to purchase them. It can, in fine, employ its expert lawyers to draw up papers of incoporation which will ensure full protection to the bondholding class. In an article contributed on this subject to the New Republic by Mr. Berle, all of whose views I do not share, a series of pertinent questions are asked. Here are some of his answers that will be found unusually comprehensive and satisfying : How shall the stock be distributed ? Accord- ing to the fairest appraisal of the value of the employee-stockholder's services. The general manager ought to have more stock than the unskilled worker. His vote at a stockholders' meeting ought to be worth more. He has earned it. What about wages? Every em- ployee ought to draw a regular base pay just TAKIN'G A LEAF FROM CAPITALISM 95 as a partner in a firm is entitled to his drawing account ; he must live. How about labor turn- over? One hopes this scheme w^ould lessen it; but men will always leave old jobs for new. Whejt a man leaves his job he must leave his stock too — resell it to the corporation, to use the vocabulary of corporation law, for a price. What price? The amount by which the value of the stock has been increased while that em- ployee held it. If while he held it bonds have been paid off and reserves accumulated out of profits, then the employee's stock entitles him to his fractional share of the accumulations; he has actually earned it during his tenancy of the job. That is what he gets when he leaves. The corporation cannot be paying cash indis- criminately as men leave? Then the amount due may be paid either in cash or bonds or preferred stock as the corporation is able; the retiring worker emerges as a bondholder, who, if he does not like to hold his bond, may sell it. Asking in fine, "Who would lend money on that kind of a proposition?" the writer expresses his belief that any well-managed labor union, demon- strating its ability to manufacture its product suc- cessfully, could sell its bonds as rapidly as many 96 TAKIN'G A LEAF FROM CAPITALISM concerns whose securities are marketed every day. But all this sounds complicated. Here is what the British furniture workers are doing even as I am writing these lines. They have followed the British building trades in the formation of a national cooperative gild to produce furniture at cost for workers' homes. Cooperative furniture-making, they argue, has been proved a success by the large factory of the English Cooperative Wholesale So- ciety at Pelaw, and they hope, by producing more and better and cheaper furniture than their competi- tors to absorb gradually the entire furniture trade. This is a licit ambition. For this purpose they are raising the necessary capital for their cooperative enterprise among the workers themselves and from the C. W. S. Cooperative Bank. Cooperative labor banks are rapidly being formed in the United States as well, under skilled financial management, and can give similar aid at home. The one danger to be averted in this movement is its absorption by Socialism, of which it is the very contradiction so long as the shares are owned by the individual workers. Hence, too, the frantic efforts of Socialists to gain control, and the confusion in the English co-operative movement. Clear Catholic thought and Catholic leadership are needed. PART TWO CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY 99 Ninth Chapter Human Equality I. The True Concept "I. — Human society, as God has established it, is composed of unequal elements, just as members of the human body are unequal: to make them all equal is impossible, and would be the destruction of society itself. "11. — The equality of the different members of society consists solely in this : that all men come from the hand of their Creator ; that they have been redeemed by Jesus Christ; and that they will be judged, rewarded, or punished by God according to the exact measure of their merits and of their demerits." Such is the definition of human equality as given by Pius X. in his fundamental regulations on "Catholic Social Action," or, as this is frequently called by him, "Christian Democracy." It is conformable to "the order established by God," he continues in this same document, that there should be rulers and subjects, inequalities of rank and class. It is not the province or the desire of the Church to prescribe any form of government, whether monarchical or republican ; but it is her duty 100 THE TRUE CONCEPT to proclaim the rights of lawfully established author- ity. In agreement, too, with this order of God's Providence is the difference between "masters and men, rich and poor, learned and unlearned," since there will always be diversities of talent, of strength, of health, of energy and enterprise, and hence diver- sities of wealth and learning and opportunities. The latter, indeed, can be more fairly distributed, but nature itself will not be changed, in spite of all the protestations of Socialism. But the one point to be insisted upon in the doctrine of Christian Democracy is the "bond of love" which should unite all these ranks and classes, high and low, rich and poor, who "should help one another to attain their final end in Heaven, and their material and moral well-being on earth." This is the very essence of Christian solidarism. The Motu proprio of Pope Pius X on "Catholic Social Action," from which the above passages are quoted, is itself based entirely upon the writings of Pope Leo XIII, whose social teaching it is meant to reaffirm. Referring to the doctrine on human equality in the encyclical "On the Condition of the Working Classes" of this great Pontiff of the Work- ingmen, Cardinal Manning says : "Leo XIII points out that the equality of all men THE TRUE CONCEPT 101 is contradicted by every fact and condition of human life. Both the gifts of nature and the products of human freewill introduce, at every moment, in- equalities which are lawful, innocent, and fruitful of every kind of good. Society itself would not grow, nor w^ould its prosperity and power be de- veloped, if all men were equal. And as society unfolds its own perfections, men at once become unequal. The inequalities of age alone would daily multiply the inequalities of early and middle and mature life. If we were all equal today, inequalities would spring up tomorrow. And these very in- equalities are the spirit and the means of growing perfection. 'It is impossible to reduce human society to a level. The Socialists may do their utmost, but they are striving against nature in vain'." (See Ryan-Husslein, "Church and Labor," p. 164.) Many of these have understood the folly of such contentions and merely demand an equality of opportunity. This is perfectly desirable and legi- timate, within its just and inevitable limits. But here, too, their interpretations run riot, and justice and charity are disregarded. Equality of oppor- tunity, in fine, was never more glaringly denied to men than when Socialism reached its acme in the Communist regimes that immediately followed the 102 CHURCH AND SOCIAL JUSTICE World War in Russia, Hungary and Germany. A handful of Communists sought to keep within their own grasp the opportunities of a nation. //. CImrcJi and Social Justice The attempt of Socialists to turn into ridicule the position of the Church by maintaining that all the existing conditions of excessive riches and squalid poverty, of riotous wealth and oppressive labor are condoned or even championed by her as "the will of God," is the purest injustice. The Church, while defending unconditionally "the order established by God," does not because of this sanction any indus- trial iniquity established by man in the present state of society. She has been the first to lift her voice against the abuses which today exist, and as long as even a single man is denied his just wages, or a single woman is bent down with unnatural toil, or a single child is deprived of its God-given right to love and happiness and all the due development of every faculty of body and soul, she will continue to repeat her pleadings and denunciations. Nor is the Church indifferent to the proper education of the people and the diffusion of true knowledge, since ignorance and prejudice are her greatest enemies. Least of all, is the post-Reformation capitalism CHURCH AND SOCIAL JUSTICE 103 preached by her as "the order established by God." The last proof that the Church is not what Socialism declares her to be is the undeniable fact that capitalism has, in proportion, driven forth from her fold more souls than Socialism has ever been able to wrest from her. It is precisely because the ways of modern wealth can too often not be squared with the principles of Catholic faith, that a transi- tion from poverty to riches has only too frequently been followed by a separation from the Church whose restrictions laid upon wealth had become un- bearable, and whose mission of preaching the Gospel to the poor had become a scandal and a hindrance to social advancement. It is on this ground that the non-Catholic his- torian Penty, explains the Reformation, The German peasants had been eliminated by Luther when he called upon the princes to slaughter them without mercy. For two centuries thereafter they were to be reduced to a condition which has been described as the most oppressive existing in all Europe. Of the merchants and shop-keepers who supported the Reformer, Penty says : "They came to support Luther, not because they had any intention of living up to the ideals of the early Christians, but because they resented super- 104 CHURCH AND SOCIAL JUSTICE vision and for long had chafed under a religion which taught that the pursuit of wealth for wealth's sake was an ignoble and degrading thing, however far its priests fell short of its ideal. So they wel- comed a gospel which removed such supervision and made them answerable only to their own conscience, from which they had little to fear." ("A Gild- man's Interpretation of History," pp. 152-3.) Nothing, moreover, could be more opposed to the Catholic doctrine of human equality than those theories which long were the support of capitalistic selfishness, and which under various names were known as Manchestrianism, Liberalism, or Individ- ualism. Their basic principle was in every instance the unregulated freedom of individual action in industry and commerce, which in turn was based upon a false conception of equality. This, in place of leading to social helpfulness, was made a justifi- cation for every form of greed and oppression. All restrictions on labor contracts or competition, whether due to organization or state interference, were, according to such theories, as we have seen, to be swept away, and each individual was to depend upon his own resources for success or failure. It was the Darwinian struggle for existence legalized. Thus it came about that "a small number of very COMMON BROTHERHOOD 105 rich men," in the words of Pope Leo XIII, were able "to lay upon the teeming masses of the poor a yoke little better than slavery." ///. Common Brotherhood The true doctrine of human equality is to be found in that concept of society only which we have described as the system of Christian Democracy, and which regards society as an organic body, wherein each member must contribute to the good of all the others, and private aims must be kept subordinate to the general welfare, as Pope Leo XIII wrote : "Therefore, just as the Almighty willed that, in the heavenly kingdom itself, the choirs of angels should be of differing ranks, subordinated the one to the other; and just as in the Church God has established different grades of orders with diversity of functions, so that all should not be apostles, all not doctors, all not prophets ; so also has He estab- lished in civil society many orders of varying dignity, right, and power. And this to the end that the State, like the Church, should form one body comprising many members, some excelling others in rank and importance, but all alike necessary to one another and solicitous for the common welfare." ( "Socialism, Communism, Nihilism.") 106 COMMON BROTHERHOOD Such subordination does not, however, imply an indignity put upon any class, as SociaHsm teaches the masses in order to rouse them to rebellion. It is hallowed by Christ Himself. Accepted joyfully for love of Him, it is lifted to a sublimity immeas- urably above all kingship and domination of earth, and receives the promise of the kingdom, the true riches which Christ came to bring. It is necessary, in fine, for the common welfare. There is before God, as we well know, no distinc- tion between rulers and subjects, the former, having much to answer for, run greater peril of their soul : "For a more severe judgment shall be for them that bear rule. . . . For God will not accept any man's person, neither will he stand in awe of any one's greatness : for he hath made the little and the great, and he hath equally care of all. But a greater punishment is ready for the more mighty." ("Wisdom," vi.-6-9.) In the conception of society according to the ideal of Christian Democracy, and so according to the mind of Christ and of His Church, the master is for the servant and the servant for the master, the employer for the welfare of the employed as much as the employed are to contribute to the good of the employer, and all are intended for the glory of God COMMON BROTHERHOOD 107 through Christ their common Lord. The relations of labor are meant to be only an extension of the relations of the family. Laborers are to be re- spected and treated as members of a larger house- hold. Besides the obligations of justice and charity, there likewise exist the mutual duties of piety or affection. The fact that even to mention these may appear to many idealistic and visionary in our day shows how far we have drifted away from Chris- tianity in our present industrial life. And yet it is not true that these obligations are universally ignored. Much less is it true that they can no longer be observed. The principles of Chris- tian Democracy, though equally ignored by the selfish theories of rationalistic capitalism on the one hand, and of revolutionary Socialism on the other, are nevertheless for all time and can at no period be set aside with impunity. The realization of human brotherhood, let us re- member, can be attained in no other way than through Christian charity. As Pope Benedict XV so earnestly reminded the Catholic hierarchy in his very first encyclical : "In a particular manner, with all the forces of the arguments which the Gospel and human nature and public and private interests supply, let us be zealous in exhorting all men to love 108 KINDS OF EQUALITY one another in a brotherly spirit, in virtue of the divine law of charity. Human fraternity, indeed, will not remove the diversities of conditions and therefore of classes. This is not possible, just as it is not possible that in an organic body all the members should have one and the same function and the same dignity. But it will cause those in the highest places to incline towards the humblest and to treat them, not only according to justice, as is necessary, but kindly, with affability and tolerance; and will cause the humblest to regard the highest with sympathy for their prosperity and with confi- dence in their support, in the same way as in one family the younger brothers rely on the help and defense of the elder ones." IV. Kinds of Equality It was the false discontent, unintelligent and unjust, which Socialism often arouses, that made of Cain the murderer of his more successful brother Abel. Equality may have many meanings. There is political equality, which has to a great extent been achieved, but the concept of which is often based upon incorrect principles. There is equality of wealth, which can never be attained, though the KINDS OF EQUALITY 109 widest possible just distribution of private produc- tive property is the aim of Christian Democracy. Yet even then all men can never reap the same rewards. There could be no greater injustice than this. The definition of the Communist in the Eng- lish Corn Law rhyme may still be familiar to many : "What is a Communist? One who has yearnings For equal division of unequal earnings; Blunderer, pilferer, or worse, he is willing To put down his penny and pocket my shilHng." There is equality of social classes, which we have refuted throughout this chapter. It is of the very nature of society that inequalities must exist here that so all may cooperate for the common good, each in his own place and function. Finally, there is equality of opportunity, which before the law is to be open to all, and which is to be furthered to the utmost just extent. Yet opportunities will naturally be limited by the inevitable inequalities to which we have already referred, unless we would constantly readjust them by violent means. The true equality, the one whose results out- live the changes of time and lasts on through eternity, accordingly as we have availed ourselves of our opportunities here, consists: "in this," as 110 KINDS OF EQUALITY Pope Pius X wrote, "and this alone, that all men come from God the Creator, have all been redeemed by Jesus Christ, and will be judged, and punished or rewarded, by God, exactly according to their merits or demerits." The promise of Socialism to the laboring classes, that it will bury their crosses forever in a new era of social equality has already proved itself to be idle and false. The hope of capitalism to hide its own beneath a bank of roses is equally vain. The unhappiness of the godless rich is no less deep and dark than the misery of the poor who have cast off religion because Socialism taught them to reject it as "the opium of the poor." That is the Marxian motto. The Church neither sides with the rich nor flatters the poor. She calls upon her children, in the name of Christian Democracy, to defend the just rights of the worker and the poor. But she knows of duties as well as of rights, and to all classes alike she preaches the need of sacrifice and love. "He that taketh not up his cross, and fol- loweth me, is not worthy of me," are the Saviour's final words. There is no other royal path that leads to peace and happiness. "Being rich he be- came poor, for your sakes ; that through his poverty KINDS OF EQUALITY 111 you might be rich," rich in that spiritual wealth which alone the rust shall not consume nor the moth devour. 112 Tenth Chapter Private Ownership /. The Church's Doctrine The haze of modern errors which enfolds in its obscurity every social principle is nowhere gathered more densely than about the fundamental doctrine of property rights. Even well-meaning laborers and employers are often misled, in their bewilderment, into the various phases of thought which terminate in Socialism on the one hand, and in the many extremes of capitalistic excesses on the other. Amid the general confusion of contradictory views, the Church alone, guided by faith and reason, has ever held the safe and golden means. It is as wrong to invoke her authority unconditionally in defense of modern capitalism as to allege it in sup- port of Marxian economics. Yet she will not reject a social teaching which has been her inheritance through the centuries, merely because she finds it suddenly proclaimed as a Socialistic discovery, neither will she abandon a principle of justice be- cause it has been abused in the name of capitalism. The "sacred rights of property," to be held in- violate by individuals and commonwealths alike, are those which are founded upon the laws of nature and the Commandments of God. These rights arc THE church's DOCTRIN'E 113 sacred for all times, and in their principle are subject to no materialistic evolution, whether in the Social- istic sense or according to the doctrine of modern individualists. They are thus briefly stated by Pope Pius X in the fourth and fifth articles of his Motu propria on "Catholic Social Action," and may be found developed at length in the Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII "On the Condition of the Working Classes." "IV. With regard to the goods of this earth, man has not only, like the animals, the use of them, but also the right of permanent ownership : and this, not only with reference to those goods which are consumed in being used, but also with reference to others. "V. Private property is an indisputable natural right, whether it be the fruit of labor or industry, or the transfer or gift on the part of another, and each one may reasonably dispose of it at will." In these articles, therefore the Sovereign Pontiff vindicates the right of permanent ownership, not only in regard to the goods of consumption, but likewise "with reference to others." That these others include private productive property, which constitutes the centre of Socialist attacks, is evident. It is largely against Socialism that this Motu propria 114 THE church's DOCTRriTE is directed, and it is particularly the Socialistic doctrine of property which is declared to be opposed to Catholic morality. Thus, in describing the ideal of Christian Democracy, Pope Pius X tells us that it "is far removed from that of Social Democracy, and is based on the principles of the Catholic faith and morality, especially on that of never attacking in any way the inviolable right of private property." (Art. XII.) This, however, does not imply the in- violability of modern capitalism. Property is said to be rightfully acquired not only by labor, but likewise by industry, transfer or gift ; "and each one may reasonably dispose of it at will." Wisely to regulate man's inborn right to prop- erty, just so far as necessary, and to prevent on the part of owners all undue aggressions detrimental to the common good, is the function of the State. But to hinder altogether the use of this right, or to restrict it to such an extent as is demanded by Socialists, would be nothing short of tyranny and injustice. Economically, Socialism would prove equally disastrous to capital and labor. Morally, however, there is erected against it forever the insuperable barrier of the Seventh Commandment, since Socialist philosophy denies the obligation of adequate compensation. It is this godless philos- THE church's DOCTRIN'E 115 ophy which dominates the minds of the leaders, howevermuch individual members may express themselves as opposed to it. It is this same godless philosophy which has everywhere been enacted into deeds where Socialism has come into unhampered power. The State has no power of ownership to dispose of the private property of citizens. It has only the power of jurisdiction to see that all the rights of individuals are duly respected and the common good is sufficiently consulted. The rights of property are not derived from the State or the law. Neither can they be made or unmade by a majority, as Socialists claim. They lie deeper than all human regulations or evolutions and are derived through nature from God. "Every man has by nature the right to possess property as his own," wrote Pope Leo XIII in his Encyclical "On the Condition of the Working Classes." It is the duty of the State to see that as many as possible be enabled to actualize this in- definite right vested in each individual. "The law." he continues in the same document, "should favor ownership, and its policy should be to induce as many as possible of the humbler class to become owners." There is question in this portion of the Encyclical, 116 THE church's DOCTRIN-E it should be noted, of productive property alone, of land-ownership. But this natural right to "lucra- tive" property, as Pope Leo XIII calls it, is not confined to landed possessions. No limitation excluding the means of production is ever made, but the term "private property" is used in its full un- qualified sense wherever its rights are spoken of as "inviolate" — subject only to such partictdar restric- tions as the common good may postulate in any given epoch. Speaking of capital and labor in the Encyclical just quoted, and understanding by the former the possessors of productive property. Pope Leo thus plainly defines the Catholic position : "Just as the symmetry of the human frame is the resultant of the disposition of the bodily members, SO' in a State it is ordained by nature that these two classes should dwell in harmony and agreement, and should, as it were, groove into one another, so as to maintain the balance of the body politic. Each needs the other." Commenting on this Encyclical in his "Social Questions and the Duty of Catholics," Mr. Devas says that the Pope insisted upon the right of private ownership "not merely to^ hold stores of consumable goods, but permanent sources of income, land in particular" (p. 13). THE SOCIALIST ATTITUDE 117 //. The Socialist Attitude To justify their attitude Socialists appeal to the right of eminent domain. On this point we need only say that the Church fully concedes to the State the right, in exceptional cases, of appropriating certain private properties necessary for the common good, on the supposition, however, that proper com- pensation is made. This, it is plain, does not in the least justify the State in appropriating all produc- tive property to the extent demanded by Socialism. It is the same fallacy which underlies the argument that the right of taxation implies the right of con- fiscation. Because a part may be taken to presence the whole, it does not follow that the whole may be likewise seized with impunity, as Pope Leo XIII states : "The right to possess private property is derived from nature, not from man; and the State has the right to control its use in the interests of the public good alone, but by no means to absorb it altogether. The State would therefore be unjust and cruel if under the name of taxation it were to deprive the private owner of more than is fitting." (Ibid.) Compensation, moreover, would be impossible under Socialism. Though proposed by certain political tacticians within the party, it is out of all 118 THE SOCIALIST ATTITUDE question. "Not only in Great Britain, but on the Continent, in America, in Canada, and in Australia, the aim of the Socialist movement is confiscation," the English Socialist candidly wrote in its issue of April, 1908. There is no Socialist authority who regards compensaton as a duty of justice. At the best it can only be a matter of expediency. "Ex- propriate the expropriators," is the final word of Marx. In an issue preceding the Appeal's attack upon the Federal Judiciary on April 27, 19 12, this organ, which then numbered among its editorial staff the oft-time Socialist candidate for the Presi- dency, Eugene Debs, thus plainly outlined its program : "The Appeal is frequently asked how the Social- ists will get possession of the railroads, the tele- graph, the telephone, the coal mines, the oil fields and the instruments of production. Let me say again, as I have said frequently in these columns, that the Appeal is in favor of confiscating them. Why should we beat around the bush ? To buy these and issue bonds in payment and then enact an income tax that will appropriate the capitalists' revenue will amount to the same thing in the end." This is a plain and true statement. Socialistic confiscation and compensation would differ but little in practice. UNDER CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY 119 ///. Under Christian Democracy In defending, however, against Socialism the doctrine of private ownership, even in the means of production, the Church does not offer any sanction for the abuses of present-day capitalism, neither does she exclude any reasonable extension of munic- ipal or government ownership which the common good requires, since by this latter the lawful exercise of all rights of property must be regulated. As the Irish Bishops in their joint pastoral of 19 14 briefly state the Catholic teaching on this subject: "The State or municipality should acquire, always for compensation, those agencies of production, and those agencies only, in which the public interest demands that public property rather than private ownership should exist." The ultimate ideal of Christian Democracy in regard to private ownership in the means of produc- tion may be thus briefly reproduced here from "A Catholic Social Platform," composed by the present writer as a brief expression of Catholic social teach- ings and aspirations: Equally opposed to the unnatural abolition of private productive ownership under Socialism, and to its restriction to a few men of wealth under the post-Reformation capitalism, the true social system 120 UNDER CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY advocates instead the widest diffusion of the posses- sion of productive as well as of consumptive property, that as many as possible of the workers can hope, by just means, to become sharers in it. And this personally, and not merely in the name of a Communistic commonwealth. Such possession will satify the aspirations of men, lift them above the position of wage-earners only, and help to their full and harmonious development, insuring the stability of the new social order. Such was the consummation most closely attained when Catholic gildhood was in its prime and the in^uence of the Church effective; when the appren- tice might hope, by industry, skill and virtue, to become a master ; when each lived for all and all for each. Such is the Catholic ideal. The old organizations cannot be restored as they were. But it is possible, in the words of Pius X : "To adapt them to the new situation created by the material evolution of contemporary society in the same Christian spirit which of old inspired them." Such, in a material way, are the cooperative trade, credit and agricultural societies intended for self-help and to eliminate a wasteful system of dis- tribution. Such are the attempts at cooperative production, where the entire enterprise is owned by UNDER CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY 121 the workers who alone receive both wage and profit, and where each worker is personal owner of shares and participates, directly or indirectly, in the man- agement. Such, too, though less completely, are the various plans in which the workers own a considerable part of the voting stock. And such in fine, to a greater or less degree, are all copartnership arrangements by which the workers share in the corporate stock and reasonably participate in the industrial manage- ment: the regulation, through their shop gilds, of hours, wages, discipline, processes of production, etc. Since every business is constituted of money- capital and labor-capital, it is unreasonable that the former alone, as under capitalism, should have the entire power of control and the latter be subjected to a state of complete dependence. Men are more than money, and persons more precious than ma- chinery. There is no narrowness, as can be seen, in the Catholic ideals regarding private property. The ownership of this can never be absolute, in so far as the disposition of private wealth or capital is dependent entirely upon the Divine will. For ownership means nothing more than stewardship 122 UNDER CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY for God, to whom alone all things belong absolutely and ultimately. In answer, finally, to those who profess to see in the teaching of the Church a "capitalistic" doctrine, we would call attention to one important word in the second of the articles we have quoted from Pope Pius X. Private property is an indisputable right, he teaches, "and each one may reasonably dispose of it at will." Not any arbitrary use of ownership, consequently, is to be permitted, but only such a disposition of property as accords with right reason. How this is to be understood we find fully described for us in the Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII. By one word, therefore, are excluded at once all the brutal methods of competition, based upon the Darwinian survival of the fittest; all the many un- scrupulous business practices which today lure the unwary to their ruin; all exploitation of the workers, the poor and the unprotected. In so far as such systems are made to represent capitalism the Church is its most deadly enemy. These abuses, however, do not of themselves constitute the system of productive property. They are only the poisonous growth of Mammonism upon the body economic and call for instant and relentless amputation in the interest of the common welfare. Yet it is part of UNDER CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY 123 the campaign of Socialism to represent the Church as the champion of these vices, most detested by her, in order by such methods to aHenate her children from their true Mother. It is only by misrepresen- tation, as we well know, that such a purpose can ever be accomplished. With this twofold enemy, therefore, storming at her portals, Mammonism and Socialism, it is the basest act of treason for any of her children to pass over into either camp and thereby league themselves with the forces against her. 124 Eleventh Chapter Ozanam on Poverty and Wealth /. "Back to the Masses!" "Back to the masses!" was the cry with which Ozanam startled the generation in which he lived. We shall not convert Attila and Genseric, we can do nothing with the men who are misleading the people, but with God's help we shall convert the people themselves. We may do little with the luxurious rich and the men of letters and science, inflated with their importance and centred in their own conceit. We may do little even with the classes of self-indulgent Catholics who have lost the spirit of their Faith and who, in education or in social life, are exposing their sons and daughters to all the dangers of the new paganism. We build little hope upon them. ''Since the fifth century," says Ozanam, "a vast number of saints had a greater liking for the Goths and Vandals, the Arian and idolatrous Francs, than for the effeminate Catholics of the Roman cities." Of all nature's gifts, learning was dearest to Ozanam, nor was wealth ever attacked by him when justly gotten and rightly used. Both are meant to be of invaluable service to the Church as well as to humanity in all its needs. But it was the poor above "back to the masses!" 125 all others whom Christ sought out, it was in the hordes of the barbarians that the Church wisely saw the hope of the future. It is upon the masses that the strength of CathoHcity must be built in our age as in the days of the Caesars and in the days of the barbarian invasion. To this latter Ozanam figura- tively alludes when he gives us the watchword of the future : Passons mix borbares. Spend yourselves upon the masses. If we can hope nothing from these, he argues, "then are we at the end of the world, and so at the end of all controversy." {"Lettres," II, p. 224.) In another letter he writes : "Are we not like the Christians of the early ages, cast into the midst of a civilization which is corrupt and a society which is decadent ? Cast your eyes upon the world which encompasses you. Are the rich and the happy of our time much better than those who answered Saint Paul, 'We will hear you another time'? Are the poor and the people much more enlightened? Are they more well-to-do than the men to whom the Apostle preached? For the same evil the same remedy is needed. The earth has grown cold. It depends upon us to rekindle the vital spark which is being extinguished." ("Lettres/' I, p. 148.) Education has greatly advanced, wages have been 126 "back to the masses !" increased, social standards have been raised, but the same dissatisfaction remains among large classes of the people. What, then, is to be done? Teach generosity to the rich, that social conditions may be more equalized, but Christianize the masses. The only magic that can unlock their hearts is charity. "My children," said Pope Pius IX in 1855 to the Vincentians gathered about him at Rome. "I con- secrate you Knights of Jesus Christ. The world does not believe in preaching or in priesthood, but it still believes in charity. Let us advance to the conquest of the world by the love of the poor." What are these words but an echo of the great cry of Ozanam. In urging generosity upon the rich he reminds them that while our Lord taught us to ask for our daily bread, He never counselled that we should make provision for ten years of luxury. The great value of wealth, he says, is the possibility it affords of making sacrifices. We know of no more beau- tiful words upon this subject than those which he writes in defense of property in "Les Origines dii Socialism" : "Christianity does not weaken property; on the contrary, it preserves it, as the material itself of sacrifice, as the condition of self-despoilment, as a "back to the masses!" 127 part of that liberty without which man cannot merit. . . . If it has made a crime of theft, it makes a duty of almsgiving, a counsel of the aban- donment of worldly possessions, and a state of perfection of that community life whose attainment has been more or less realized in all ranks of Cath- olic society." Christianity indulges in no declamations against wealth as such, but only against the neglect of justice or stewardship on the part of the rich, which but too frequently occurs. It is not against riches that the "Wo" is uttered in the Scriptures, but against the injustice and inhumanity that have so often been connected with the ownership of them. In the words of Pope Leo XIII : "No one lives only for his personal advantage in a community; he lives for the common good as well, so that when others cannot contribute their share for the gen- eral object, those who can do so are obliged to make up the deficiency. The very extent of the benefits they have received increases the burden of their responsibilitiy, and a stricter account will have to be rendered to God who bestowed those blessings upon them" ("Christian Democracy.") This is true also of the gifts of intellect. Ozanam well understood these truths and sought to bring them home. 128 THE VIRTUE OF ALMS-GIVING II. The Virtue of Alms- giving His sharpest lance is leveled at the doctrine of Socialism which, in opposition to the direct teaching of the Sacred Scriptures, condemns the giving of alms. How little Socialism has changed in spirit is evident from the opening statement of his article De UAiimone, published in L'Ere Noiivelle, Decem- ber, 1848. The words which occur there might have been written today with equal truth: "It is a set thesis of Socialists to denounce alms-giving as one of the detestable abuses of Christian society." Human pride resents the dependence which it implies. Yet dependence is the very law of our being. The child depends upon its mother, as the mother in turn depends upon the love of the child. In a thousand things we daily must depend upon our fellow-man. Seen from a spiritual vantage point, the dependence of the rich upon the poor is far greater than that of the poor upon the rich. It is not merely that the poor afford to us the blessed opportunity of charity, but they perform a ministry of expiation, a sacrifice whose merit returns as a blessing upon society when poverty is borne for the love of God. There is no comparison between the gift of the rich and the gift of the poor. The THE VIRTUE OF ALMS-GIVING 129 latter is unspeakably more precious. But these truths can be fathomed only by a Christian soul. "Do not say," he argues to forestall a difficulty, "that because we look upon misery as a priesthood we wish to perpetuate it. The authority which assures us that we shall always have the poor with us is the same which bids us to do all we can that poverty may no longer exist. It is precisely 'that eminent dignity of the poor in the Church of God/ as Bossuet says, which places us at their feet." Those who know the road to the homes of the poor, who have brushed the dust from their narrow stairs, never knock at their door without a feeling of respect. "They know that the poor man, in receiving his bread from them as he receives the light from God, bestows an honor upon them. They know that men can buy admission to the theatre and public fetes, but that nothing can ever pay for two tears of joy in the eyes of a poor mother or for the handclasp of an honest man whose return to work they have made possible." Charity, therefore, is for Ozanam the great solu- tion of the social problem. Charity must bridge over the chasm that yawns between the rich and poor. Charity must overleap the difference between men, the distinction of rank and fortune and learning, to 130 THE VIRTUE OF ALMS-GIVING unite all men in one true brotherhood. That is possible only through Christianity. It is, therefore, the first duty to look to the souls of men in attending to their temporal needs. Charity will chasten those who give and will make those who receive susceptible to the lessons of divine truth and love. Justice will thus be brought back to earth. Nor is charity to be extended only to those who are in need of alms. There is still the immense class of those who need not alms, but institutions, as Ozanam wisely says. Charity impels us to provide for these by the neces- sary organizations. "If a great number of Chris- tians, and above all, of priests," he wrote with apostolic fervor, "had but occupied themselves with the working class these last ten years, we should be more secure of the future. All our hope rests upon the little that has been done in this direction." Christian or Catholic labor unions have since then been founded in many countries where this was possible. In other instances Catholic Workingmen's Associations were established. The latter organiza- tions are not intended to replace the labor unions, but to supplement them by a sound social, economic and religious education, connected with wholesome entertainment and mutual benefit foundations. In THE GOOD SAMARITAN 131 any case social instruction and literature must be furnished to all our Christian workingmen. ///. The Good Samaritan Allusion is frequently made by modern reformers to the parable of the Good Samaritan in order to point out that the great need of our day is not so much the cure of those who have fallen among robbers as the proper lighting and policing of the roads in order to prevent future outrages and pro- vide safety for passengers — in a word, that we must strike directly at the causes of our economic evils, rather than concern ourselves too greatly with the victims of them. Socialists even look upon the lesson of the parable as entirely debasing and opposed to revolutionary ideals, since their prin- ciples oblige them to combat Christian charity under every form, except where it can be made the means of revolutionary propaganda. Thus they are willing to advertise their cause by ostentatiously transport- ing the children of poor striking laborers into large cities, there to parade them for political purposes. More wise than either of these classes, and deeply versed in the wisdom of the Scriptures, Ozanam correctly read the parable. "Charity," he says, re- ferring to the obligations of the State, "is the 132 THE GOOD SAMARITAN Samaritan who pours oil into the wounds of the traveler who has fallen among robbers. It is the duty of justice to prevent the attack." (Melanges, II, p. 586.) No less than the most ardent modern reformer he insists upon the claims of justice and the supreme obligation of jealously watching over their mainten- ance. Charity and justice have both their place, and neither can ever, even for a time, render un- necssary the other. As long as human nature exists, with its physical and spiritual ailments, it must still be a-thirst for the milk of human kindness, and depend upon human help, nor can the sword of justice ever be sheathed. One great fact there is, which will always remain, and with which we shall always have to reckon, no matter what social order the world may accept, and that is Original Sin. It is therefore the duty of the Christian to see that just wages, sanitary conditions, reasonable hours of work and all the many other demands of justice be duly enforced. But in the meantime the work of charity must continue, bridging over the social chasm and bringing together rich and poor into one Christian brotherhood, looking to the soul even more than to the body. It is society itself, as Ozanam wisely says, which THE GOOD SAMARITAN 133 has fallen among robbers and is bleeding from her many wounds. Priest and Levite do not now pass by unheeding; but in her frenzy she rejects their service. The laity must, therefore, come to her aid and help to staunch the flowing blood, and pour the oil and balsam into the wide-open wounds, and gently bring her to that divine hostelry of the Church where her wounds may be healed and she may be fed with the bread of immortal life. To sum up, we conclude with the following forcible words from Les Origines du Socialisme: "In deciding in favor of property for well- weighed reasons. Saint Thomas did not renounce the strong maxims of the Fathers, he did not hesi- tate to quote the words of Saint Basil and Saint Ambrose : 'The bread which you hold back belongs to the hungry, the garment which you lock up be- longs to the needy who are left naked, the shoes which are rotting in your mansion belong to those who go unshod, and it is the money of the poor which you are hiding away in the earth.' These texts are familiar to Socialists, who abuse them. But Saint Thomas explains their true meaning by completing their sense with those other words from Saint Basil, not to be separated from the preceding : 'Why, then, have you an abundance while another 134 THE GOOD SAMARITAN goes beg-ging, if it is not in order that you may gain merit by the good use you make of it, and that he may gain the crown of patience?' And he con- cludes that, according to natural right, the super- fluity of the rich should be devoted to the necessities of the poor ; but because there are many necessities, and because the goods of one cannot suffisce for all, the economy of Providence leaves to each one the free dispensation of his own goods." Here, therefore, is Ozanam's solution of the problem of our modern unrest: "Voluntary de- spoilment in place of spoliation, sacrifice in place of theft." 1 135 Twelfth Chapter Christian Charity /. The Science of Charity That charity is a science is no modern discovery. In the first pages of the history of The Acts of the Apostles by Saint Luke, we read of men particularly devoted to it as a special vocation demanding for its proper and fruitful exercise the grace and wisdom of the Holy Ghost. "The Twelve, calling together the multitude of the disciples, said : It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. . . . And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip and Prochorus, and Nicanor and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles; and they praying, imposed hands upon them." (The Acts, vi: 2, sqq.) There is question here of more than the mere practice of charity. There is question of an ordina- tion, while charity itself is the duty of every Chris- tian. Charity is the supreme test to be applied at 136 THE SCIEN'CE OF CHARITY the day of judgment, according to our Lord. By it in particular the elect are to be distinguished from the lost. But the charity of which Christ speaks is that by which the giver devotes himself, as well as his gifts, to the needy and afflicted, the charity in- spired by the Holy Ghost and directed by His wisdom. This is the scientific charity of the Catholic Church, under which pauperism was unknown in the ages of faith, and every human suffering was made the object of organized relief, when men were found willing to sell into slavery their own bodies for the love of Christ, that they might save both the bodies and souls of their fellow-men. This was scientific charity of which the world knows little today. To renew the pristine splendor of this virtue Ozanam founded his first conference of Saint Vin- cent de Paul. The Science of Charity may be studied in each of its two distinct aspects, the one temporal, the other spiritual. Both are combined into a single exercise of Christian virtue by the true Catholic charity worker. Whether enlisted in the organized army, or serving privately, every Catholic is called to be an adept in this supreme science of Christian Love. Considered from its natural point of view, the THE SCIENCE OF CHARITY 137 science of charity, like that of philanthropy, consists mainly in tracing poverty to its causes and seeking to remedy them. Mere temporary relief, as the Catholic charity worker well knows, is insufficient. It is at times even harmful when given without dis- cretion, no matter how deserving the poor may be. True charity consists in meeting at once the urgent necessities of the poor, but above all making it possible for them finally to help themselves. By tracing every form of misery to its source we shall come upon evils of many kinds. The removal of them will not merely afford the only true and last- ing relief to those in distress, but will be likewise a real service to society at large. Questions of character, environment, social and domestic rela- tions, and others of a similar nature, will be seriously taken into account before arriving at a final solution. If scientific philanthropy has worthy and feasible suggestions we do not hesitate to accept them; but what we shall stand most in need of is the one condition demanded by the apostles, the grace and wisdom of the Holy Ghost. To give wisely the alms of good advice and moral assistance, was the first lesson Ozanam learned from M. Bailly, who presided over the first meetings of the young men whom Ozanam had brought together 138 THE SCIEN-CE OF CHARITY in answer to the taunt of the St. Simonians, "Show us your works !" The first case dealt with by him, to use a technical expression, is too well known to be circumstantially repeated here. No past master of scientific philanthropy could have "handled" it more perfectly. Ozanam did not merely still the hunger of the poor starved woman with her five children, but investigated "the case" until he was able to free her from the brutal, drunken master whose marriage with her, Ozanam found to her surprise, had never been legally contracted. She was freed from his pursuit and revenge by a police order, which forced him to remain in Paris, while Ozanam begged the means that enabled her to re- turn to her mother in Brittany. He likewise found employment and protection for her two eldest boys. It was a clean and perfect solution, a masterpiece of scientific charity, although only the work of a beginner. Yet all this might likewise have been accomplished on its purely material side by scientific philanthropy, though not with the same grace and sweetness. Of the sublime moral effects produced by Ozanam there could, however, not have been the slightest question. CHRIST IN' THE POOR 139 //. Christ in the Poor The Science of Charity is not merely material. It is above all a spiritual science, and so differs from mere philanthropy, as much as grace from nature, as heaven from earth. If the purely material side of charity is thought to call for teaching and training to make it truly effective, and raise it above a mere giving of alms, the spiritual science of relieving poverty requires even far greater care and study. It can be learned only by the humble of heart. And it is for this reason that Ozanam always insisted so much upon humility and retirement. This charac- teristic it was which at once caught the attention of Leon Le Prevost, who thus noted his impression of the first conference of Ozanam : "There is here at this time," he wrote in a letter, "a splendid movement of charity and faith; but it is all hidden away in its obscurity, and so escapes the notice of the indifferent world. Out of these new catacombs, if I am not mistaken, a light will go forth for the world." (Vie de M. Le Prevost, p. 35.) There is something mysterious, sacramental, about poverty which only the eyes of faith can perceive. "Blessed is the man," says the Psalmist, "that understandeth concerning the needy and the poor." The poor are for us the representatives of 140 CHRIST IN' THE POOR Christ. He in a manner identifies Himself with them, so that the good we do to them is done to Him. The negligence and indifference we show towards them He considers as affecting Himself: "Amen, I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me." Such is the final word of everlasting judgment. God will eternally ignore those who ignore Him in the poor. We readily, therefore, understand the reverence and humility with which Ozanam appeared in the presence of that mystery of poverty, of God in His poor. So far from looking upon the poor as in- debted to him, he most sincerely considered himself highly indebted to them. He rightfully understood, and ever insisted upon this fact, that the gratitude of the giver must by a divine logic far exceed the gratitude of him who receives. This is the fun- damental principle of the science of charity. The poor can never accept as much as they give. No man is a true Vincentian who has not thoroughly grasped this truth, that humility and gratitude must be on the side of the donor. Hence, likewise, we can perceive why personal perfection and not the relief of poverty is the first object of the Society founded by Ozanam. It is CHRIST IN* THE POOR 141 through charity that personal perfection is sought. It is by prayer and frequent Communion that his disciples are to prepare themselves for their visits to the homes of the needy and afflicted. In the same manner it is the soul, rather than the body of the poor, which they seek to cure and to enrich. Temporal assistance, consolation and advice are an opening and preparation for spiritual instruction and counsel. Properly, therefore, to fulfil their sublime function they must daily seek to conform more perfectly to that ideal pointed out to them by the Apostles, that they may be "men of good reputation, full of the Holy Ghost and Wisdom." Such is the science of charity which can be learned only in the school of Christ. "Our main purpose," said Ozanam in brief, "was not to help the poor. This was only a means. Our object was by the practice of charity to strengthen ourselves in the Faith, and to win others for it." For this reason he avoided the publicity of modern philanthropy. The grass ever remains small and lowly, though it covers the entire earth, and so he wished the society, of which he considered himself only a promoter, to remain established in humility, no matter how largely it might gain in membership. Today it has spread everywhere, fashioning after 142 THE POOR ALWAYS WITH US the model of the Divine Master countless self- sacrificing souls, devoted like Him, to the cause of humanity. Such is the splendid answer Ozanam has given to the taunt of the Saint Simonians, the Fourierists and rationalists at the University of Paris : "What are you doing, you who boast of your Catholicity. Where are your works that prove your faith, that can make us respect and accept it?" ///. The Poor Always With Us Since the rise of Socialism no little controversy has been waged about the familiar text from St. Matthew, "The poor you have always with you." (XXVI: II.) Socialists themselves are not en- tirely agreed as to its meaning. It is interpreted by them either as having only a temporary signification, or else it is taken in its traditional acceptation, and quoted as only another instance of the folly of the Scriptures compared with the economic insight dis- played by Marx. One fact, however, is evident to us, that if Christ foretold the continuance of pov- erty upon earth, the promises of Socialism are false. The spirit, on the contrary, in which Catholics interpret the text is sufficiently plain from the Encyclical Rerum novarum of Pope Leo XIII. Re- THE POOR ALWAYS WITH US 143 ferring to the curse which rests upon the earth under the ban of sin — "Cursed is the earth in thy work ; with labor and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life." (Gen. Ill: 17)— the Pontiff says : "In like manner the other pains and hardships of life will have no end or cessation on earth; for the consequences of sin are bitter and hard to bear, and they must accompany man so long as life lasts. To suffer and to endure, therefore, is the lot of humanity. . . . If any there are who pretend differently, who hold out to a hard-pressed people the boon of freedom from pain and trouble, an undisturbed repose, and constant enjoyment, they delude the people and impose upon them; and their lying promises will one day bring forth evils worse than the present." This is evidently aimed directly at the false hopes held out by Socialists. In denying that these hopes can be realized we do not, as the Socialist press incessantly maintains, acquiesce in the economic errors or iniquities of the present day as found under capitalism. On the contrary, we only work the more persistently to remedy existing conditions. We do this even if we know that poverty can only be lessened and ameliorated, though never entirely banished from the earth. 144 THE POOR ALWAYS WITH US "The poor you have always with you" is the present used for the vivid future, as the parallel at once makes plain when the entire text is given : ''For the poor you have always with you; but me you have not always." In both clauses a present is used in a future sense. "Have for, will have," Migne briefly remarks in his "Scripturae Sacrae" (Vol. XXI. "In Matth.") In the same manner Cornelius a Lapide writes upon this passage : "The world always abounds with the poor, to these there- fore you can always do good." So also St. Thomas Aquinas explains our Lord's defence of the Magdalen : "the poor were always to be found in the Church and to them the faithful might do good whenever they desired; but He was to remain with them in the body only for a short time." {"In Matth." Cap. XXVI.) The constant insistence upon the virtue of alms- giving in the Sacred Scriptures is evidently not meant to be of only temporary application, as it would be if the objects of this virtue were hence- forth to disappear from the earth. To give, how- ever, the most convincing proof it is sufficient to instance the words of that sentence which is to be spoken by Christ, the Supreme Judge, on the day of the last judgment. They emphasize the practice THE POOR ALWAYS WITH US 145 of charity towards the poor as one of the principal tests by which souls are to be saved or lost. True, it is not the only test ; but the special insistence laid upon it for the entire human race, past, present and future, shows that there will always remain upon earth the need of charity, that the poor are always to be with us even to the end of time. "I was hungry," He will say to those who are to be saved, "and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink ; I was a stranger, and you took Me in ; naked and you covered Me." And to the lost He will say: "I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat ; I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink. . . . Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it for Me." (Matth. XXV: 35 sq.) It is clear, therefore, that the objects of the virtue of alms-giving are still to remain with us, no matter how we may be able to lessen their number or relieve their hardships. But this fact can never be an excuse for so much easily avoidable poverty in our day. While the consequences of original sin will con- tinue to manifest themselves to the end of time, as Pope Leo XHI says, we are to do all in our power to remove the causes that lead to human misery. 146 THREE CLASSES OF CATHOLIC CHARITY WORKERS It is in this way that charity is doubly blessed, blessing- him that gives and him that receives. Socialism would not lessen poverty, but only makes it more universal than it has perhaps ever been in the history of the world. Bolshevism is an illustra- tion. Its temporary triumph would only confirm the truth of that Church against which all its arms are turned. Poverty, in fine, although following in the wake of original sin, is not sin, as Socialists define it, but more frequently than riches is the stepping stone to virtue, and the means of mounting to the highest sanctity. IV. Three Classes of Catholic Charity Workers How, we naturally ask, does all this apply to the charity dispensed by the Catholic Church through its institutions and individual workers? There are three classes of social workers in the Church : the religious consecrated to the service of their neighbor and of God; the Catholic laymen and women who without any monetary recompense devote them- selves to charity according to the measure of their possibilities and the time allowed them; and finally a now happily increasing class of trained salaried social workers who give their whole energy exclu- sively to organized social work. THREE CLASSES OF CATHOLIC CHARITY WORKERS 147 The religious receive no salary in the proper sense of the word. They are devoting their lives to this labor of love with absolutely no personal re- turns except food and clothing and the lodging that shelters them in common with those entrusted to their care. The houses they build, the donations they receive, the means they secure by arduous labor and self-sacrifice, are all devoted entirely to the service of the poor, the suffering and the un- fortunate, in whom they gladly serve Christ, their Lord. The second class of Catholic social workers are no less unselfish in their labors for the afflicted members of Christ and no less noble in their ideals, though they cannot give their entire lives exclu- sively to the two-fold service of religion and charity. They represent the great body of Catholic laymen and women who, individually or through organized efforts, are going about doing good and dispensing blessings, after the model of the Good Samaritan and the Divine Healer of the souls and bodies of men. They give liberally, not merely of their means, but of themselves. Such is the work of that magnificent organization, the St. Vincent de Paul Society. There are the cases, lastly, where salaried social 148 CATHOLIC EFFICIENCY workers are employed to perform duties that call for such undivided attention as can only be given by those who make this labor their life-work, yet for good reasons cannot serve without some re- muneration. These workers are worthy of their hire. The general purpose in calling for their help is not to relieve Catholics from the task of personally interesting themselves in the poor and the afflicted, but rather to make this personal attention more fruitful and to prevent all interruptions in the sys- tematic service of those urgently in need of assist- ance. The remuneration of these social workers is not likely to be extravagantly large. Their lives too may be filled with the purest supernatural motives. Their labor is highly honorable and can be made most salutary for the spiritual as well as the bodily welfare of the neighbor. Indeed, to be truly Catholic, it must always keep both these ends clearly in view. V. Catholic Efficiency There is little possibility of sinecures in Catholic organized charity. The alms dispensed are given directly to the poor, as in the case of the Vincen- tians, or expenses are reduced to the minimum. Unprejudiced testimony to this effect has been given CATHOLIC EFFICIENCY 149 in the oft-quoted words of Mr. Rockefeller in the Saturday Evening Post: "Just here it occurs to me to testify to the fact that the Roman Catholic Church, as I have observed in my experience, has advanced a long way in this direction (i. e. in the direction of efficient service for the welfare of our neighbor in the cause of charity). I have been surprised to learn how far a given sum of money has gone in the hands of priests and nuns, and how really effective is their use of it. I fully appreciate the splendid service done by other workers in the field, but I have seen the organization of the Roman Church secure better results with a given sum of money than other church organiza- tions are accustomed to secure from the same expen- diture. I speak of this merely to point out the value of the principle of organization, in which I believe so heartily. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the centuries of experience which the Church of Rome has gone through to perfect a great power of or- ganization." The work of the Knights of Columbus, both in the World War and after, is a splendid illustration to which Mr. Rockefeller could not at that time have referred. At the Constitutional Convention of the State of New York, in 1894, when the question 150 CATHOLIC EFFICIENCY was raised of rendering it unconstitutional for the State to make grants to private institutions, Mr. George William Curtis, editor of Harper's Weekly, said: "Various statistics have been given us to show that most of the local aid has been granted to in- stitutions which are managed by the Roman Catho- lics. But, unquestionably, sir, if the State, as we have determined, is to aid charities, it cannot avoid, at least proportionately, helping those which are under the care of the Roman Church. It is impossible not to recognize the fact that the charitable foun- dations of the Roman Church are comprehensive, the most vigorous and the most efficient known in history." (Meehan: "Thomas Maurice Mulry," pp. 147, 148.) While, therefore, there is much point in the application of an editorial remark made in the New York World, as applied to many non-Catholic pri- vate charity organizations and perhaps no less when applied to our public administration of charity funds, there can be no reasonable application made of it to private Catholic charity. The World said : "It is clear that the middleman furnishes the same problem for philanthropy as for regular forms of industry. Here again the point is to bring the CATHOLIC EFFICIENCY 151 producer in closer touch with the consumer and effect economies of distribution which are impossible under the present wasteful methods. Private charity in particular has much to gain from the abolition of sinecures and the elimination of extrav- agance." The ideal of charity was never more closely approached than in those "Dark Ages" when "the economics of distribution which are impossible under the present wasteful system," as seen outside the Church, actually did exist. There is apparently need of efficiency experts in organized charity "to put it on a Taylor system," suggested the news serv- ice of the American Federation of Labor. There has never been a more efficient "Taylor system" than that in use by many of the Religious Orders in the Ages of Faith, and no less efficiency is shown by them in our own day, though with less ample sup- port. The "Reformers" realized the efficiency of Catholic charity work in their day, as clearly as does Mr. Rockefeller in ours. Only with the sup- pression of the monasteries and the confiscation of their goods, which were the dower of the poor, did pauperism first appear and lift its hideous head in Christian lands. Slowly the world is perceiving the truth of all 152 CATHOLIC EFFICIENCY this. The parrot school of history, which thought- lessly repeats the same hoary falsehoods is gradually being replaced by a scientific and honest investiga- tion of facts and a deeper and truer knowledge of the past. Non-Christian organized charity, public or pri- vate, and non-Catholic schools of philanthropy can- not provide the most necessary part in the training of social workers. They overlook the spiritual element, which even a non-Catholic writer describes as the most important of all factors. The social worker must be deeply imbued with the realities of the supernatural life, if he would properly fulfill his responsible task of ministering to the poor and the afflicted, if he would bring back order out of chaos, if he would restore Christian life to a disordered family. It is well that we should learn whatever valuable lessons scientific philanthropy may have to teach us; but we must seek also religiously to ac- quire from far higher sources than economic au- thorities, the true Catholic science of Christian char- ity. Very far are we from approaching the wise thoroughness with which charity was successfully dispensed in medieval days. There is need of coordination if this work is to be scientifically carried on in our large modern CATHOLIC EFFICIENCY 153 cities, where Catholic charities have already taken root in a thousand places. There is need first to survey the entire field, to see what has been accom- plished and what remains to be done, to avoid waste- ful duplication, to coordinate the efforts of all and evoke a new spirit of cooperation, to study the existing- wants and possibilities, to plan the works that must still be undertaken, to compute carefully the entire cost, and then effectively to organize for the great two-fold end of raising the funds that have been accurately calculated as necessary to cover all expenses, and of carrying out in every detail the undertakings that have been skilfully charted by expert knowledge, for God's greater glory and the help of our fellow-men. While the existing charities will still continue as before to draw upon their former sources of assistance, financial or otherwise, countless new veins are tapped and deeper shafts are sunk, that in all places the charity of Christ may abound. Finally these efforts must be rendered permanent by an unfailing constituency of organized supporters and the constant stimulation and en- couragement from above. Such is the work, such are the methods that are now being put into effect throughout entire dioceses. It is scientific charity charged with the spirit of Christ. 154 Catholic Social Action Pope Pius X In his "Fundamental Regulations of Christian Popular Action" Pope Pius X, briefly sets down the social teachings of his Predecessor Leo XIII. , and strongly confirms them by his own explicit renewal of them. The first five of these regula- tions were studied in Chapters IX and X, Here, like clear-cut crystals, are nine precious clauses on Justice, Charity and Christian Democracy: Justice and Charity "VI. To calm the strife between rich and poor, it is necessary to distinguish between justice and charity. Only when justice has been violated is there a right to make a claim. Obligations of Justice FOR LABOR "VII. The obligations of the poor and of the workman are these: to perform wholly and faith- fully the work which has been freely and equitably agreed upon; not to injure masters in their prop- erty or person; to abstain from acts of violence, even in the defence of their own rights, and never to turn their demands into disturbances. CATHOLIC SOCIAL ACTION — PIUS X 155 FOR CAPITAL "VIII. The oblig-ations of justice for capitalists and masters are as follows : to pay a just wage to workmen; not to injure their lawful savings by violence, fraud, nor by open nor hidden usury; to allow them freely to fulfil their religious duties ; not to expose them to corrupting allurements, nor to the danger of scandal; not to entice them from a love of their family and from careful thrift ; not to impose on them work unsuited to their strength, age, and sex. Obligations of Charity THE RICH "IX. It is an obligation of charity for the rich and for those who have means, to help the poor and needy, according to the precept of the Gospel. This precept is of such binding force that, at the day of judgment, as our Lord Himself tells us, a special account of its fulfilment will be required. THE POOR "X. The poor, on their part, ought not to blush for their poverty, nor disdain the charity of the rich, above all when they think of Jesus our Redeemer, Who, though He could have been born in wealth, 156 CATHOLIC SOCIAL ACTION PIUS X made Himself poor to ennoble poverty and enrich it with incomparable merit for Heaven. Social Organisation "XL Capitalists and workmen may themselves largely help towards the solution of the labor ques- tion, by institutions formed to give timely aid to those who are in need, as also to draw together and unite the two classes. Such are societies of mutual help, numerous private insurance societies, what are called "patronages" for the young, and above all, working men's unions. Christian Democracy "Xn. This solution is the special aim of the Christian Popular Action, or Christian Democracy, with its many and various undertakings. But this Christian Democracy ought to be understood in the sense already determined by authority, which is far removed from that of "Social Democracy," and is based on the principles of the Catholic faith and morality, especially on that of never attacking in any way the inviolable right of private property, "Xni. Moreover, Christian Democracy ought never to mix in politics, and ought never to be made use of for party purposes, or political objects ; that is not its province ; but it should be a beneficent CATHOLIC SOCIAL ACTION — PIUS X 157 activity in favor of the people, founded on the natu- ral law, and the precepts of the Gospel. "XIV. In carrying on its work, Christian Democracy is strictly bound to dependence on eccle- siastical authority by complete submission and obe- dience to the Bishops and their representatives. It is neither meritorious zeal nor true piety to under- take things fair and good in themselves if not ap- proved by the lawful pastor." Of the above clauses the first six are condensed from the Encyclical of Leo XIII. "On the Condi- tion of the Working Classes" and the remaining three from the Encyclical of the same Pontiff on "Christian Democracy." In the paragraphs that then follow Pope Pius X speaks of the necessity of centralization of Catholic social efforts under the direction of the Hierarchy, and in particular lays down rules for the direction of Catholic social writers. The main point dwelled upon is the obvi- ous necessity of their whole-hearted submissiveness to the spiritual authority established in the Church by Christ, since the social question is above all things a moral question and intimately connected with religion. Here is the concluding regulation, the spirit of which should animate every Christian who approaches the great social problems of our day : 158 CATHOLIC SOCIAL ACTION PIUS X The Mutual Bond of Love "XIX. Finally, let Catholic writers, while up- holding the cause of the people and of the poor, beware of using language which may inspire the masses with hatred of the upper classes of society. Let them not talk of claims and of justice, when it is a question of pure charity, as has already been explained. Let them bear in mind that Christ wishes to unite all men by the mutual bond of love which is the perfection of justice, and implies the duty of working for each other's good." THE APOSTOLIC RULE 159 The Apostolic Rule "I beseech you therefore brethren, be reformed in the newness of your mind; he that giveth, with simplicity; he that rideth, with carefidness; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love he without dissimulation — hating that which is evil; clinging to that which is good; loving one another with the charity of brotherhood ; zvith honor pre- venting one another; in carefidness, not slothful; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation ; instant in prayer. Communicating to the necessities of the saints. Pursuing hospitality. Rejoice with them that rejoice; weep with them that weep; being of one mind to one another; to no man rendering evil for evil; providing good things not only in the sight of God but also in the sight of men." {From St. Paul to the Romans, XII, as collated in the Encyclical on Christian Democracy.) UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. m L9-Series 4939 -M-Toung Hesearch Library HD6338 .H96w L 009 540 567 6 HD 6338 H96w I PLEA^^ DO NOT REMOVE THIS BOOK CARD University Research Library