The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-02-07
TRUE FRIEND OF LABOR
THE CHURCH HAS ALWAYS DE-
TENDED THE RIGHTS OF LABOR
AGAINST THE AGGRESSION OF
CAPITAL CATHOLIC PRINCI-
Piles APPLIED IN MANY COUN-
TRIES.

TRIES.
Professor MacCaffney of Maynooth,
in his larger work, History of the
Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Cen
tury," gives a summary of the work
done by the Catholic Church towards
lettering the position of the laborer
and defending his rights from aggres-
sion on the part of the capitalist. So
cialist theorists and leaders, he points
out, were bitterly hostile to religion
which, they taught, was not different
from absolutism in government and
was opposed to the cause of the peo-
| pie.
Their attitude was so unfair that it
behooved the Church in it's own in
terests to organize Catholic working
bodies so as to preserve them from
atheistic socialist influences. Accord
ingly, and after much struggling for
effective organization, the Catholic
Democratic movement began to crys-
talize, the principal apostle of a
Catholic economic party springing up
in the German Bishop of Mayence, DR..
Won Ketteler, who saw the necessity of
fighting the Socialists by adopting a
working program and organizing the
Catholic workmen.
In the program which he mapped
out, Bishop Ketteler practically laid
the foundations of the Center Party
in Germany. This program advocated
| (1) the rights of individual owner
ship, (2) the redress of the workmen's
grievances, and (3) the division of
| profits between capital and labor.
While maintaining the rights of own
ership, he held that unlimited owner
ship of the means of production ii. e..
monopoly was adverse to the rights
of the people-the old Catholic idea
of ownership.
Ketteler also held that the working
classes were entitled to an increase of
salary corresponding to the true value
of their labor, to limited number of
hours of labor, to sanitary conditions
| in their work, and to the exclusion of
children and mothers from labor in
factories. In regard to the division Of
profits between capital and labor,
Ketteler advocated the establishment
of associations of production, the
funds for which could be procured, not
by State Intervention, but by volun-
tary contributions dictated by Chris
tan charity.
These principles Of Ketteler have
received considerable extension since
the days of their advocacy, and it is
now held that the State may fix the
hours and conditions of labor, can
protect the young from physical and
moral contamination, can encourage
cooperative associations amongst the
artisans, guarantee them legal exist
ence and an administrative autonomy,
oblige the employers to insure their
workmen against accident and DEATH
and, if necessary, fix minimum wage.
This is the economic platform of the
Center Party in Germany.
Austrian Catholic leaders have
adopted this program for their Chris
tian Democratic body in order to COM
bat the bitter hostility of the Jews and
land also adopted the program, and
here Catholic and Protestant work
men cooperate against aggressive cap
ita1ism and atheistic socialism, the
University of Freiburg serving as a
training center for apostles of the
Swiss Christian Democratic campaign.
In France there are two Catholic Ia
Dor bodies, namely, CD the Conserva-
tives, advocating limited interference
by the State in economic questions,
and (2) the Democratic school, akin
to the German Catholic Democratic
party, among the leaders of the lat
ter being the Comte de Mum
In Belgium the rapid growth of So
cialism has also called for it's Catholic
Labor body; in Italy the Catholic or
CARNATIONS are still much divided. In
England the principles of State inter
vention and the protection of the
worker are recognized, though the
Compromised organization is matter
of the future The question of the
Knights of Labor in the United States
gave the Catholic hierarchy an oppor-
tunity Of expressing sympathy with
the claims of the laboring classes in
America, while the strong support
given by the Irish Bishops to the
Agrarian Movement in Ireland showed
clearly that they admitted State inter-
ference in the contracts between land
lords and tenants. In Spain, Portugal
and the leading countries of South
America, the principles of the Catho-
! lie Democratic movement have re-
ceived support.
Inequalities, according to the prin-
ciples of Bishop Ketteler, were the re-
suit of natural laws. Equity alone,
as the level of the principle of State
Intervention, could protect the worker.
Labor should organize for it's own pro-
lection, and Christian principles
should govern all its movements as
| well as those of the capitalists. Ger
many, Austria, Switzerland, and Bel
GUM have established their organiza-
tions, while the Nun and SANGER
bodies in France have mapped out pro-
grams from which much good is ex-
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