Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-11-23
A HEREsY ATTACKED.
An Archbishop Who Doesn't Indorse
Communism.


Communism.
lBy telegraph to the RECORD UNIoN.]
New YORK, November 22d.-In his ser
mon yesterday Archbishop Corrigan, of the
Catholic Church, took open and strong
ground against the doctrines put forth by
the Labor party. A pastoral letter to the
same effect was caused to be read in all the
churches. The Archbishop, referring to
the rights of individuals to acquire and
hold property, gives utterance of special in
terest and significance. He begins by warn
ing his people against certain unsound
principles and theories which assail the
rights of property, and continues as follows;
Undoubtedly God made the earth for
the use of all mankind, but whether the
possession thereof was to in common or by
Individual ownership was left for reason to
determine. Such determination, judging
from the facts of history, the sanction of
law, from the teaching Of the wisest and
the actions of the best and bravest of man
kind has been and is that man can, by law
full acts, become possessed of the right of
ownership in property, and not merely in
its use. The reason is because a man IS
strictly entitled to that of which he is the
producing cause, to the improvement he
brings about in it, and the enjoyment of
both. But it is clear that in farm, for in
proved in value-in block of marble, out
of which he has chiseled perfect statue
he cannot fully enjoy the Improvement he
has caused unless he has also the right to
own the object thus improved.
To strive to base an argument against
ownership in land by reasoning on the
universal distribution of air and light, is
only a freak of the imagination. Once
deny the right of ownership and you SOW
the seed of stagnation in human enter
prise, the rights of the toiler are trampled
on, and the fruits of his labor snatched
! from his grasp.
True, this is done too frequently with
the concurrence or at least the connivance
of law. This is the evil that needs re-
dress, but such redress can never be brought
about by denying a fundamental right or
by perpetrating radical wrong"
KNOCKED OUT, AS IT WERE.
New York, November 22d-Being asked
what he had to say in answer to Arch
bishop Corrigan's pastoral letter, Henry
George said 81 don't know what to say.
You see when fellow has been sat down
upon by the church, he must stop and
think before making a reply. Just at this
moment 1 am not prepared to say any
thing, but most likely shall write some
thing and send it to the papers"
WHAT LEADING JOURNAL SAYS.
New YORK, November 22d.-The Post
says editorially Archbishop Corrigan's
pastoral letter to the clergy and laity of the
Roman Catholic Church of New York, on
the subject of Socialism and Henry George
ism, is a very important matter. Although
clothed in the peculiar language of the
Church, nobody can fail to discover what
the thought is nor to respect it as embody-
ing the truth, of universal application,
equally cogent in all stages of the worlds
history-in heather as well as in Christian
lands. The central idea is that private
property is protected by moral sanction,
and that the Church is bound, for this
reason, to resist all attacks upon it. Henry
George will probably reply that he does not
seek to dispossess anybody of the improve
ments which have been made upon land,
unless they become so far incorporated
with the soil that they cannot be separated
from it; but this happens to be the condi-
ton of nearly or quite all the land in the
United States to-day.