The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-10-13
U.HEr.
CATHOLIC CHURCHES
Cardinal Gibbons on the
Need of Arbitration in
Settling Labor
Disputes.
ST. MICHAEL's ENTERTAINMENT.
A Fine Programme to Be Presented
Rev. Father Tighe Will
Lecture Here.
ST. MICHAEL's ENTERTAINMENT.

Cardinal Gibbons has written an inter-
esting letter on Labor" in which he
speaks of the need of arbitration in sett-
ling disputes. Among other things Car
dinal Gibbons says
Before the coming of Christ manual
labor was held in degradation and rele-
gated to slaves as being unworthy of
freemen. Chris our Saviour has digni-
fed and ennobled labor by word and ex-
ample. He was pleased to devote many
years of His life to mechanical p~urcuits
and ever since He worked in the car
penter shop He shed a halo around the
workshop.
sixty years G an eminent French
writer, De Toqueville, speaking of the
United States, said:-"With us every
honest work is honorable He could not
pay a higher ribute to the genius of our
country or the spirit of our institutions.
Surely labor is held in as high esteem to-
day as it was then.
LABOR HAS ITS RIGHTS.
Labor has its rights. chief among
which is the privilege of organizing and
forming into societies calling themselves
mutual protective societies. Our modern
labor organizations are the legitimate
source OF our American labor grievan-
ces. In our times there is a great ten
dency in every department of business
throughout the United States, as well as
Great Britain, to form companies. There
is a continuous network of companies
and partnerships. When corporations
combine it is quite natural for the labor
ing men to follow their example.
But labor societies have many dangers
menacing them. They are composed of
men formidable in numbers, varying in
character and nationality. They are
naturally more difficult to manage and
more liable to be dissolved than COM
panies or corporations. They are in
need of leaders of tact and ability who
Will aid the employees of the societies
without ~infrineing upon their employees.
EFFECT OF STRIKES.
lone of the most difficult questions in
our times TO discuss is the question of
strikes. Perhaps this is not an unfavor-
able time to allude TO this subject as the
great strike is ended and men are dis
judgments than they were some months
ago. Strikes. as experience has demon
strated, are very questionable for the re-
dress of the laborer's grievances. They
ten lead to the destruction of property,
and they result in infiicting many injur-
les by keeping the laborer in idleness,
while his mind is clouded by discomfort,
and his family not ~unfrequently suffer
for the comforts and necessities of life.
From statistics furnished by Carroll
D. Wright of the eight years ending De-
cenber l, 1888, We find that the loss to
the employees by strikes amounted to
nearly s7S,Go0. 900, while the employers
lost only half this amount. I earnestly
hope that some efficient remedy will be
found to put an end to our recurring
most patent method that can be con-
ceived of. A method that entails mis-
cry and loss is not the best means of
adjusting labor grievances. A plan that
will carry with 1t good and true Chris
tian civilization should be sought for and
adOptcd."