The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-11-29
from Pager
THE SOCIAL PROBLEM

tralization. That is true of govern
ment 1t exercises authority; let 1t
move on uncontrolled and there would
soon be no free men in the land. Now
just as authority and power are cen
Trailing so is property independent
and in it's independence it is the only
safeguard of liberty. 1t resists the
encroachments of government and
restores the free faculty of discrimi-
mating legislation. 1t tends conse-
quently to barbarism because it tends
to the encouragement of liberty
That is true not merely as a philoso-
ply, it's truth is borne out by history.
Rights of Property.
"Why were the brave children of
the Balkans irresistible? One of the
careful papers of the country an
nounced one morning, The Hungarian
farmers are irresistible They were
fighting, not for theory, they were
fighting for the rights of property.
1t is instructive. We observe it in the
conduct of the ant and the bee. We
see it in the pranks of the little child.
1t reaches out to gather in and make
it's own everything it can touch. 1t
protests and resists every effort to
despoil it of it's prize, and in that
sense all men are children and always
children. We are led to it very
largely by that life of independence
and liberty secured by the possession
- ho4
own.
The Personal Liberty Side.
81 have no fear for the future;
am perfectly sure that that instinct
which is the safeguard of liberty will
resist any reconstruction of society
and the encroachments of any force
which would despoil the people of
what it has individually. 1t leads to
the question of personal liberty, it
tends to destroy the home. Why is
the ordinary man ambitious? Why
does he toll without murmuring? Why
is his heart set to the noble task of
making a little foot of Gods earth
his own? Is it for personal comfort
No. He has larger vision and q
more energetic ambition He wants
to establish a home. And. friends,
that desire, the activities which it in
cites, the adoption of home and the
issue which it takes and sustains in
his life are his personal safeguards.
These are the things, the incidents
if you call them, in a mans life which
make him toll and his compensation
is the love and devotion of those for
whom he has lived and toiled.
Make the state and not the father
the provider of the family; you have
established a huge founding house,
you have destroyed the instincts of
paternalism as fact and an economy
and you have broken down the de-
fences of the home, robbed children of
all basis for reverence and all piety
and as a consequence uprooted the
foundation of civil society and thrown
the world back into the worst degree
of savagery.
Socialists will tell you that the
movement is not immoral, that it isn't
calculated to make for domestic i'm
purity or vice. Grant it if you will,
but it surely does this-it tends to
destroy these sacred relations which
are now the basis and the charm of
domestic life. Supposing that it pre-
walls; would it be workable? AIDE
quate reward for eXertion is now to
all men the carrot that bangles before
ho To IynnTO him tho frnf
Take it away, as you must in the So
cialistic state-what incentive have
you to move men to exertion? Greater
gain there can be none. They might
as we'll have pig iron as gold if what
they are getting in reward cannot be-
come an active instrument for greater
gain.
''You have destroyed incentive, you
have killed ambition and you have
brought down the level of efficiency to
that of mediocrity and in that con-
dition the wealth of the world must
gradually disappear until every man
becomes a pauper.
Men Not Economically Equal.
1--WE are told that men are equal.
They are not economically equal. l
visited week or so ago steel plant
at Homestead, Pa. / saw man in
the tower beneath that great plant
moving and applying energy that did
the work of thousand men. l said
to the guide, He is a genius No.
he said, but that machine is central
lied genius and a centralized direct
i've power That man may neither
read nor write, he only knows how
to manipulate those handles there in
the tower which throw upon the world
every day product worth a million.
What is it worth-exceptional talent
centralized and living in that creation
of machinery? 1t moves tremendously
because there is wonderful directive
power somewhere there in that great
plant Will any man venture to tell
me when l point to the products of
that great industrial center that all
men are economically equal and that
consequently all the product ought to
be equally divided? 1t is fallacy
and a mischievous fallacy. When you
socialize a state you leave no excep-
tional reward to incite and bring out
exceptional talent.
1.-The genius will see no reason why
he should work into the small hours