St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-09-04
IRELAND ON LABOR.
THE ARCHBISHOP RECEIVES GREAT
APPLAUSE. At CHICAGO.
THE TEACHINGS OFF LHo xrrL

Society Owes to Men Either the
Opportunity to Work or the
Food Wherewith to Maintain
Life-SOciety Must Provide for
the Needy as a Matter Of
Justice.
CHICAGO, Sept. 3.-The worlds labor
congress tonight was crowded to suffo-
cation. The chief attraction was the
promise OF an address by Archbishop
Ireland. The famous archbishop was
enthusiastically received when he made
his appearance. and frequently his re-
marks were Interrupted by round after
round of applause. Among those on
the platform with him were Samuel
Gompers, president of the American
Federation of Labor, and the delegates
from tho Social Democratic Federation
OF Great Britain. The archbishop
spoke with all the impetuosity and re-
sistless eloquence that have won for him
the cognomen of "The Consecrated
Blizzard" Archbishop Ireland's SUBJ
lect was ''The Catholic Church and the
Labor Question" He said:
1t IS matter of great moment to
know the position which potentand
WORLDWIDE CHURCH
takes upon the labor question. | view
for the nonce the Catholic church simply
as an existing fact with which men
thinking and working for humanity
of
upon the aetualities of the world. This
impress is necessarily deep and far
reaching; for her children number $780,
100000. her commands find attentive
ears all over continents, her chieftain
rises in moral power and public majesty
above all other rulers OF men. The
cause of labor the Catholic church has
soiemnly espoused. Her supreme pom
till, Leo KILL, has spoken in the en-
cycllcal on the condition of labor.
We have there the clear statement
of her convictions. MY title in
the eyes of posterity," "he has said: Let
it belthe workingmen's pope" At the
very foundation of the labor question
lies the proper appreciation of the in
dividual man. Religion" said Leo
ILL., teaches the rich man and the en-
ployer that their workpeOple are not
their slaves; that they must respect in
every man his dignity as man and as
Christian; that labor is nothing to be
ashamed of but is
AN HONORABLE EMPLOYMENT,
enabling man to sustain his life in an
upright and creditable way. and that it
is shameful and inhuman to treat men
like chattelS to make money by, or to
look upon them merely as so much
mnscle or @hysicaI power.''
Here is the whole germ of all social
rights and duties. A man, whoever he
be, whatever his condition, his race. his
color, is always man, a child of God
whose soul, created to Gods image and
likeness, is redeemed by Christ, and
whose end is eternal life. Whatever
sacrifices or degrades in him his Unborn
dignity, under whatever pretext, is a
wrong, a crime against the Father and
the Redeemer of Man. Whatever turns
him away from his final end and the
means of reaching to it is wrong, and
no custom, no law can authorize it.
Labor is not, and cannot be, an article
of commerce, a merchantabIe commod-
ity, as bread or meat, entirely subject
to the laws Of demand and supply.
Labor differs essentially from mer-
chandise, because it is inseparable from
the man producing it. Labor is an act;
it is the personal output of the energies
of man; it is
MAN IN ACTION.
The plenary concrete object of labor
contract is the workingman, and hence
labor possesses the dignity and the
rights which are inherent in the human
person, and has before God and society
the responsibility of the human being.
The labOrer himself has not the right to
depart from those responsibilities; the
employer has not the right to solicit or
permit him to do so. The state, which
is society organized, is bound to stop
both laborer and employer from degrad-
ing human nature, AMI perverting il
from tine purposes assigned to it by the
Creator. All this is the teaching of
Leo Kill, the teaching of the Catholic
church. Leo's words are the charter of
labor's dignity and labor's rights.
Modern industrialism perceives nothing
beyond the market in which it buys
labor. The very term
LABOR MARKET
indicates the degradation to which
greed of power and pelf has sunk the
workman. Specious words are spoken
to hide away hideous crimes against
humanity. Free labor" free colnpe-
tition," freedom of contract" Such
the maxims that it Is sought to make
prevail, with the result that men are
driven to work at starvation wages, and.
however low these are, the workmen is
hidden to step aside the moment an
other human being Is found to give at
yet cheaper rates the sweat of his brow.
Freedom of contract! The words speak
bitterest irony. There is no freedom
when the alternative is TO work at
nominal price, OR to be hungry and
listen to the cries of famishIng chill
dren. Is there freedom of contract for