The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-06-17
DIGNITY OF LABOR,

The world is upside down. Idleness
peggary and crime are on top; industry
atfiuence and morality struggling be.
meath. The devil is disRorting himself
on earth, driving with whip and spur
the. harnessed millions while his vo-
tarles sit behind him in their golden
chariot, at ease.
The wealth of America has been ac-
cepted as the mind of America, labor
It's body. Let the country beware how
1t uses that body. For, "if the mind,
which rules the body, ever forgets it
self SO far as to trample upon its slave,
the slave is never generous enough to
forgive the injury, but will rise and
smite the oppreSsor" AS it is in ma
ture, so will it be in government. AS it
was IN France, so in America there will
be an overturning, and the last state
! shall be worse than the first.
While the toiler renders to his coun-
| try the Invaluable service of labor, the
rich live as beggars at his hearthstone
and worse than beggars-thieves, steal
ing in broad daylight the att1uence
which he has produced for himself and
| ms children, poisoning, staying i'm
prisoning, at right and left, wherever
their foul onslaught is resisted
Ihe workman has a God in whom
he trusts, to whom he prays, passively.
But the rotten and goddess money-mind,
which rules this country, is exerting it's
influence over him. It's effects are Wis
lble on every hand The prayer is
growing fainter. Hands are clenched
a! and teeth are set in brute determina-
ton to take by force what cannot be
secured by law, what may not be OBJ
tanned by miracle from Heaven.
When labor grows desperate when
with one mind all over the country it
organizes against its oppressors, then
the act will not be crime, but war;
there will then be a power behind it
over which no other power has control
For what is crimesbu the departure.
by lesser power. from the rules and
regulations set by a greater? And on
What are the rules and regulations of
American power based? On morality.
Justice, God? No; on money, and on
the rascality that is practiced behind
the shield of the almighty dollar.
Not until the dignity of labor is rec
ognized and enforced shall we arise i
out of the horrible condition of im-
perialism and serfdonl that is enVelop- |
ing this country. Not until fathers |
and mothers, instead of educating their !
children to higher social plane than |
themselves, teach them that labor is |
honorable, shall we fAave new. genera
tons improving upon the old ones Not
until the ideal life of Longfellow's
Acadie, where the farmers "dwelt in
the love of God and of man." free alike
from fear, that reigns with the tyrant,
and envy, the vice of republics, :" where
the richest was poor and the poorest
lived in abundance is realized in
America, shall we have the conditions
that follow from government truly
Of, for and by the people.
Men who toll with their hands should
De held in high repute, even as Acadie's
who was a mighty man in
he village and honered of all mem"
They are the bone sand muscle and
'inew of the American republic If she
would continue her course in peace and
prosperity and hold her own among the
lations of the world, let her raise her
aborers to a social position in which
hey and their sons and daughters shall
'e honored and respected. Let her give
iced to the deepening murmur Let
Ter render unto them justice while they
ret pray, for their abandonment of the
hings that are of God will be her un-
loing.-The Catholic Forum.