The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1869-08-29
National Prosperity.

| porous One--Wn1Ie spain ana Portugal rank
with them as in the last stage of national
misery and poverty. They would even
consider you mad il You should breathe a
doubt of this accepted formula, yet in fact
England isone of the most poverty stricken
nations, while Spain is in abundance
OF course, when we speak of nation.
we mean the inhabitants who compose it.
We speak as republicans, and mean the
people ; we speak as Christians, and mean
all the human beings within it's limits. We
do not refer to the King, merely, or the
Government, the nobility or the privileged
classes. 1t is an old saying that the best
government is that which secures the great
est good to the greatest number, and in
like manner the most prosperous nation is
that where the greatest number of people
are prosperous.
In England one-tenth of the people are in
the poor-house, and eight of the remaining
nine-tenths. hover around its door. In
Spain we hear of empty treasures and lost
empire, but we never hear of popular pow
erty and suffering. In England and some
other Protestant communities we con-
mighty works of mammon, and of the un-
failing stream of wealth which is pouring
in through the ceaseless activity of IL popu-
iation which thirsts after the goods of this
world but we hear also of a population
ground into dust in the frightfnl battle of
avarice. We bear of laws which protect
the rich, and make them richer at the ex-
pense of the poor, who become poorer, and
we see every evidence of the inhumdn
hardness of heart, the indifference to mis-
fortune in ones fellow men which such a
base passion is sure to produce.
In Italy, Spain and other Catholic coun-
tries which are not at present prosperous
in their outward relations, we find the poor
happy and contented. Their means are
amply sufficient for their wants, and if
some accident should deprive them of
health or member, the loving hand of
charity ministers to them at
their own home instead of their being con-
signed to the living death of a parish poor
house.
Which els the greatest real prosperity,
there where few aristocrats flash in SPLEEN
dor before the eyes of a hungry and de
spairing crowd, amid the roar of successful
railroads and the hum Of mighty factories,
or there where the people are we'll fed and
though the glitter and glare of
State tinsel is somewhat furnished and
fadedq We have but to consider all men
as equally our brothers, and it will be easy
to answer such q question.
These are distinctions to be seen every
day in favor of the worst governed Ca
tholic countries, as contrasted with Pro
testant nations, no matter how apparently
is easily fathomed.
There is constant warfare in all society
between capital and labor. Capital has
on its side it combines with
and sagacity, while the combina-
lions of labor are more .unwieldy, more
spasmodic and passionate, less governed
by reason, and less supplied with means to
sustain themselves. Consequently as popu- |
lation increases, the inevitable tendency is
that power should confne itself in the
hands of n few rich men, while the masses |
are more and more at their mercy. Even
now in this favored country, how rapidly
is this getting to be the ease. Mechanics
and laborers have had their day. For
merly the supply of labor was alto
yether inadequate to the opportunities for
ts use, but now it is much easier for capi-
al to find agents for its various works, |
md it grows more dictatorial in its terms. |
We hear every now and then of f'strikesn
md of the "eight hour law" but the
strikers generally get the worst of it, and
he eight hour law amounts to nothing.
The only law which can protect labor
gainst capital, the poor against the rich,
he weakiagainst the powerful, is the law
# Christian charity.
The only true, faithful and reliable pro-
ector the poor have ever, found is the
church. The Church loves them, and is
bile to protect them. 1t furnishes to
heir side of the contest the element by
which capital always overreaches them