The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1912-09-21
LABOR SUNDAY"
OBSERVED IN n. Y.
Thousands of Workingmen Attend
Ceremony at Which Tribute is
Paid to Honest Toll.
Labor Holds the Distinction of
Being the Primal Condition of
Honest, Noble Life.
Labor Organizations had Beginning
in the Church Guilds of
the Middle A, ,es.

the Middle A les.
The observance Of Labor Sunday"
in st. Patrick's Cathedral, New York.
Sunday evening, Sept. /, was the first
Catholic church In this country. Five
thousand working men, nearly all Of
whom were members of trade unions,
filled the great cathedral and rever-
emily assisted at the solemn services.
The large gathering of working men
assembled in response to Il circular
sent out by prominent labor officials
in which reference was made to tho
solicitude Of the Church for the well
fare of the poorest peasants from the
earliest times
The services consisted of Solemn
Vespers and sermon on 'The Rights
and Duties OF Labor" by Msgr. Nj. J.
Lavelle, rector of the Cathedral. In
his tribute to the worl1ingman, Msgr.
Lavelle said In part:
Labor is the primal condition of
honest, noble life. There Is no place
on earth for the dronc or the idlcr,
and there is for him no way to prove
his right to exist. Labor Is the meas
ure of our lives. Without labor there
is no happiness, no, health and
progress. Labor makes the blood
tingle. Labor drives away the shad-
ows, worries, troubles and cares, and
blots them out from our view. Labor
, is the mother of every virtue and Ia
Dor is the cause of all the progress
that has made the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries the most remark
able in the history of the world.
+ Tho Labor Question.
ut Is labor that builds railroads and
telegraphs, and other great things,
and it is labor that has builded those
new machines which are destined to
make man the monarch of the air as
he has been for ages of the land and
sea. 1t breaches the sweet gospel of
Jesus Christ and makes us capable of
realizing the blessed hope that leads
to heaven.
Now, word or SO as to the rights
and duties Of labor. Naturally a force
so vast, so efficient. so beneficent
has very clear, very important and
very cogent rights. The first great
right of labor is that it shall have its
reward. Every man who works by
the sweat of his brow has a righ: OF
reward. AS to how much that re-
ward shall be Is the labor question.
1--WE hear great deal about the es-
tablishment Of the minimum wage
and it looks like something worthy o1
encouragement and establishment
Every man who works is entitled tt
enough reward to guarantee his owy
: life in comfort, decency and happi'
ness. Enough to marry and supper
!, his family in the same comfort, de
| cency and happiness to which he him
!; self is entitled, and finally, enough Il
sustain him when the day comes tina
he can labor no more. Labor mus
: pay in proportion to the talents ant
, energies devoted to it. for an equal
: ity of reward is an absolute impossi
. bility.
IF all the property in the wo-l'
was divided today among the childrel
. of men, share and share alike, tomor
= row night would see some Of then
\ millionaires and others beggars in tn
= street. Some think that capital is III
t enemy Of labor. Let us see. Wha
= Is capital? 1t is mostly stored labol
= Capital is necessary to progress, an
every man, or nearly every one, Is
a laborer some time and a capitalist a
some other time. You cannot separ
!, ate one from the other.
4 Rights Of Labor.
1.-THE next right Of labor is the per
manence of its reward. From the be
ginning the idea of government ha
been two fold namely, to prescrv
n and protect the lives and propertit
n Of men. A great right that is ais
n labor's is the right to organize for III
II protection and advancement of its in
o terests and of its members. TT
ol Church first formed those organic
4, tons in the Middle Ages. when