Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1912-09-14
CARDINAL
Sends Benedition to Working
men i'm st. Patrick's
Cathedral.
Every Labor Union i'm New
York City Was Rep
resented.
MOnsignOr Lavelle Point Out
SOcialism's Weakness to
UniOnists.
WITHOUT LABOR NO HAPPINESS

Practically every labor union in
: New York City was represented al
the recent Labor Sunday services in
st. Patrick's Cathedral, when that
spacious edifice was crowded to the
doors with men eager to hear Mon
signor Lavelle, the rector, preach on
the rights and duties of laboi ing
folk. Cardinal Farley was to have
been present, but owing to the
state of his health and the in
clemency of the weather he did not
venture out of the archiepiscopal
residence.
'My first and most pleasing
duty" said Mgr. Lavelle, "is to
convey to you the cordial greeting OF
the Archbishop of New York, His
Eminence Cardinal Farley, and in
his name, as well as that of the
clergy, to bid you a hundred thou
sand welcomes to St. Patrick's
Cathedral The Cardinal sends to
each and every one Of you his special
benediction, and he wishes for each
of you health, happiness, peace,
progress, prosperity and length of
years.
Labor is the primal condition of
honest, noble human life. There is
no place on earth for the drone or
the idler, and there is for him no
way to prove his right to exist.
Labor is the measure of our lives.
Without labor there IS no happiness,
no health, and no progress. Labor
drives away the shadows, worries,
! troubles and cares, and blots them
out from our view. Labor is the
mother of every virtue and labor is
the cause of all the progress that has
made the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries the most remarkable in
the history Of the world. II is labor
That b1ilds rafifoads, anu Ts1egrap1s
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. It breaches the sweet gospel of
Jesus Christ and makes us capable
of realizing the blessed hope that
leads to heaven.
''Now a word or so as to the rights
and duties of labor. Naturally a
force so vast. so efficient, so benefit
cent, has very clear, very important
and very cogent rights. The first
great right of labor is that 1t shall
have its reward Every man who
works by the sweat Of his brow has
right of reward. AS to how much
that reward shall be is the labor
question. We hear a great deal
about the establishment of the
minimum wage. and it looks like
something worthy of encouragement
and establishment. Every man who
works is entitled to enough of re-
ward TO guarantee his own l'fe in
comfort, decency and happiness.
Enough to marry and support his
family in the same comfort, decency
and happiness to which he himself is
entitled. and finally enough so as to
sustain him when the day comes
that he can labor no more. Labor
must pay in proportion to the talents
and energies devoted to 1t, for an
equality of reward is an absolute
impossibility. If all the property in
the world was divided today among
the children of men, share and share
alike. tomorrow night would ser
some of them millionaires and 9TH |
ers beggars in the street. Some |
think that capital is the enemy or
labor. Let us see. What is capital?
II is mostly stored labor. Capital is
necessary to progress, and every
man, OF nearly every one, is a
laborer some time and capitalist at
separate one from the other.
"The next right Of labor is the
permanence of its reward. From the
beginning the idea of government
has been twofold-namely TO pre-
serve and protect the lives and prop !
critics Of men. A great right that is
also labor's is the right to organize
for the protection and advancement
of its interests and of its members.
Your organizations have increased
wages; they have made shorter
working hours; they have emanei-
pated women and child laborers, and
may God bless the labor organiza-
tions and give them strength and
wisdom TO carry on and perfect their
work. As 70 the duties OF labor:
The first duty Of labor, to me, seems
10 be to keep within the law. There
is no people on this earth who have
more respect for the law OF their
land than have the Americans. Labor
should always keep within that law
and II should always frown down
violence In every form. With the
ballot you can accomplish anything
that is right and Just. II may be
slow, but II will come as sure as to-
morrow's sun will shine. Again,
labor should always be Just. Every
laboring man should be anxious 70
give an honest days work, Just as
surely as he himself expects just
wages and measures. Use all the
Influence you can, but never resort
10 coercion. Arbitration 70 me is