The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-01-20
Continued from page ~
AND THE WORKING
MAN.

MAN.
or products belong to the state is to
deprive the laboring man of what
justly belongs to him--to make life
and toll unbearable; to crush out OF
his breast the hope of providing for
the future of his wife and children.
THAT some men have unjustly ac-
cumulated property and that the la
boring man has been treated as a
slave at times is no reason for con-
demning the present social order.
Capital has no doubt at times been
cruel and heartless. The remedy is
not the destruction of capital, but
social reform.
Destructive of Freedom.
Socialism is, moreover, destructive
of the freedom which has been guar
anteed to every man by the constitu-
ton of the United States. It's doctrine
of equality is Numerically opposed to
American liberty. American equality
does not mean that all men are alb
solutely equal in all things and are
to be kept absolutely equal in all
things. 1t means that all men have
equal rights and opportunities, a free
field and no favor. This is the reason
why the oppressed and downtrodden
of every nation come to our shores
feeling sure that their ability and
energy will be amply rewarded in this
land of unlimited, opportunities.
Let socialism, therefore, give up it's
utopian dream of absolute equality of
all men for it will crush out the am
bition which has made our country
prosperous, and, like the Juggernaut,
ride rough shod over the liberties of
the masses.
Socialism is the enemy of religion
and, therefore, is the deadliest foe of
the workingman. In vain did the
trainers of the last national platform
of the Socialist party of America de-
clare that Religion is private mat
ter, and that socialism has nothing
to do with any religion The decla-
ration was hypocritical, for the debate
that preceded its adoption showed that
the purpose of the non-reiigious plank
was simply to get votes. Just as a
Socialist paper recently said that the
aim in advocating womans suffrage
is to win the women's votes from the
capitalists. Moreover, to say that So
cialism is merely an economical theory
is to treat it in the abstract
"Bax, who is regarded as probably
the most eminent exponent of social
ism in our time, severely takes to
task some of our American Socialist
leaders for thus throwing dust in the
eyes of the laboring man. Socialism,
he teaches, is materialistic. It re-
moves from man trust in God and His
Providence and places it in man him.
self; regards all the woes of the world
as coming from capitalism, and all re-
ligions of the world as an outgrowth
of economics. Therefore, with a
change of the economic system there
will have to be new religion to sup
plant Christianity. The individual and
not the family will be the unit of So
ciety. Family life and Christian mar
riage will have to disappear.
I'm other words, true socialism de-
MES the interference Of God in the
affairs of men, eliminates Christian
marriage and a Christian home, and,
therefore, saps the very foundation of
Christian civilization.
"The great body of our laboring men
are opposed to socialism. 1t was the
| Butte miners who prevented the
Western Federation of Miners from
afiliating with the international
Workers of the World, purely So
cialistic organization. At one of it's
late congresses the American Fedora
ton of Labor, under the leadership of
Samuel ,Gompers and John Mitchell,
rejected socialism by vote of three
to one. The labor unions evidently
see that socialism is their enemy
May this knowledge increase and
spread"