Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-13
THINGS In GENERAL.
The Pope and the Labor Question-A Re-
markable Letter From Rome on Social
Economics-A Wholesome Sign of the
Times-No Very Plain Remedy to the
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH

1
any portion of this planet The working,
men are certainly the most interesting body
| of people to be encountered to-day among
| any of the class divisions of the human race.
| The question of the welfare of the working
men is like the problem of the sphinx: we
have got to guess it, or meet the calamitous
| consequences
Whether the workingmen are many of
them thinking seriously about the Pope is
| probably open to question: 1t is not likely
that any considerable part of the wage
| workers of the world were properly repre-
sented by those French brethren of theirs
who approached the holy father some years
ago, "with hands and voices uplifted," and
addressed to him the sublime words of the
apostles to their Divine Master, Lord, save
us, we perish!' 1t is certain, however, that
the Pope has been thinking very seriously
indeed about the workiugmen. He has
spent the last two years in a study of their
| needs and their distrecses. He has heard
their cry by reason of their taskmasters,
and has sought to know their sorrows; and
he has tried with all earnestness and dill
gence to learn the way which we are all try
| ing to fnd-the way out; the way out of the
Desert of Sin into that good land and large
which flows with milk and honey, the Land
of Promise. And now we have the results
of this long study in letter; in an encyclical
letter. Anybody who spends two years
writing one letter deserves to have his letter
read.
A Remarkable Letter.
The first thing to be noted about this en-
cyclical letter is that the writer is the Pope
of Rome. He is the most eminent clergy
man in all Christendom He is the most in
fuential religious teacher alive to-day. Not
another can address such an extensive con-
%1aa
has telephone at the Vatican, but certain
1t is that no man can make his voice heard
so far, in so many lands and languages. They
had custom at the Reformation which they
called tuning the pulpits.' The authorities
in church or State would send out word to
all the preachers in the country to preacn at
certain time upon certain subject IN
certain way. The result was an immense
impression upon popular opinion. But the
Pope is the supreme pulp1t-tuner OF the
world. What he says is echoed the planet
over, in every country, in every diocese; In
every newspaper of his communion, and In
every parish. Here he is speaking his mind
about the welfare of the workingmen, and
to-day 1000 bishops and 100000 priests are re-
citing his words after him. The influence
of the universal letter which Pope writes
Is beyond measuring.
The LIberality of the Aged.
This is a good place to say something
about the duty of intellectual hospitality;
by which mean the duty of giving truth
welcome no matter what door she knocks
at. Our fathers were full of distracting
prejudices which hindered the exercise OF
right judgment. They refused to have
organs in their churches because there were
organs In the cathedrals of the Church OF
England. Even so years ago there were no
doubt people still living who would not be-
lieve a word even of the everlasting gospel
if the Pope preached it. We are wiser than
that. 1t is a matter of Thanksgiving In this
last quarter of this progressive century that
we are ceasing to confuse the doctrine with
whoever speaks the truth is the man we
want to hear. It is no longer possible to put
many thinking people to CONFUSION Dy IN
forming them that certain proposltlon or
a certain practice is Roman, or pagan, or
Presbyterian, or Mohammedan. We care
not penny where 1t comes from. II 1t IS
true, if it is helpful, what matters 1t though
1t be more Roman than the rope nfrnseiI. hed. -
the holy father has any WORD OF help, ne
need have no apprehensionS about gettlng
an attentive hearing.
The subject of the encyclical letter is the
Condition of Labor" Is there were moth
ing else about the letter but the subject If
ali the rest were written in an unknown
tongue still the letter would be notable
one For the mere fact that the holy father
has spent two years studying such subject
as this and has chosen to set down his ideas
about it at such length-no matter what the
ideas are-is fact OF immense importance.
1t means a most significant advance. There
was a Pope at the Vatican even within the
accurate memory OF men not yet past m1ddle
life, who spent his time In the consideration
of such subjects as the mmaculate concep-
tion of the Virgin Mary, and his own infalh-
bility. This was like Louis XIV. tinkering
watches when he ought to have been gov
erning France.
The Pope and Labor.
But here, at last, is Pope who is interest
ed in the questions which are stirring in the
minds of modern men, and who wants to do
his share in helpiug to solve the problems
which press upon u3 In this generation.
After all, the business of religion is to make
this world a better place to live in. That is
the sort of religion which the Master taught.
The nearer the Christian church gets back
to Him, the more it will put its emphasis
upon sociology, the science of society, and
devote itself to saving the world from its
sins now. And now here is the holy father,
one of the last people who would be suspect
ed of being a broad churchman, teaching
this great broad-church and pre-eminently
Christian doctrine, and preaching the "gos-
pei of the secular life.'
The Pope begins with statement of the
necessity of doing something, and that
speedily, for the satisfaction of the question
getting into the head and heart of every
Roman priest and teacher!-that the labor
question is the question pre-eminent, which
he must study as best he can:
for the righting of the fll-condition of wage
workers: One is socialism, the other is re-
ligion. The holy father has no faith in the
socialist solution; OF at least in that feature
of it upon which he takes pains to comment
the abolition of private property. The es-
sential to the welf-being of society, he main
tains, is the inviolability Of private prop
erty. And he looks forward, as to the mill
enium, to the day when every man shall
own three acres and cow.
The Remedy Not Clear.
Eyes; but how to bring this about2 What
the socialists want Is distribution. And
what the Pope really wants is distribution
Here is a vast estate which one man owns for
miles; and here is huge tenement house
where families of human beings live in Law
ers, eight tiers of them, one over another.
not one of them owning an inch of t1.S I
ground beneath them. And what is really
for this the holy father proposes no way
whatever. Henry George is really more |
helpful here than the Pope is. The truth is |
that the Pope DOESN'T s Know any better than
But at the same time some |
such invasion of .'the rights" of private |
property as shall effect better distribution |
of it, The socialists have plan; and Henry |
George has plan; but Leo XIII has no plan |
And the inference is that the holy father. |
who knows unspeakably more about theo- |
than Sa knew level
But religion, he says, is the right remedy. |
And that is a true word. If the employer |
and the employe would both behave like |
absolutely orthodox Christians, there would |
be an end to trouble. But we knew that be- |
fore. The question is how to apply it, how |
to get it realized and acted upon.
The Pope proposes a revival of the trade
guilds of the Middle Ages. He wants to
Convert the trades unions into religious
that is to say, Roman Cathol1c-fraternities. |
If they could be converted into genuinely |
Christian societies, working upon Christian |
and having the Sermon on the |
<Tonnt for O. constitution and the Command