The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-03-28
PAPER READ BY REV. ROBERT
HUGHES AT A RECENT MEET
ING, OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCE
CLUB OF MANKATo.

CLUB OF MANKATo.
Wages is the remuneration a labor
er receives from his employer for
work performed.
We speak of high and low wages,
adequate and inadequate compensa-
ton for labor, plainly indicating the
general belief that it has an intrinsic
value. No standard of value for work
has yet been established
Labor is more frequently offered for
sale than any other commodity; still
of all articles on the market it is the
least stable in price. Time, place,
and conditions justly govern it's value
Combinations often unjustly fix it's
price.
AS the traveller at every advancing
step changes his relation with sur
rounding objects which claim his at
tention, so progressing civilization
finds new and increased obligations
and multiplied duties crowded upon
it. The judicious acceptance and pro-
per carrying of these burdens are the
guarantee of the nations life.
In barbaric times when a large
portion of the human family was en-
slaved and when might denied right
a hearing in the courts Of justice,
there was no question of wages. The
slave had no choice of masters, no
selection of work, and no hope of re-
muneration. His only compensation
was the care he received from an un-
kind, selfish and calculating master
who for his own interest maintained
the slaves efficiency to work and re-
produce himself.
Firmly fixed as this >condition
seemed, when the voice of the slave
was never heard in protest against
inflicted injuries, and the master had
no fear of revolt against his authority,
it has passed away. The apparent
harmony between master and slave
could not endure, because it was not
rooted in the justice of the master,
or supported by the contentment of
the slave.
Problems marked by fierce conten-
tions presented themselves to the rude
society of that age and were success
fully dealt with. Though we hesitate
to characterize these difficulties as in
dustrial disturbances, because they
occurred at period when industry
was little known, they were, neverthe-
less, near akin to the difficulties of
our own times, and prompted by the
same motive, human avarice. Avarice,
so inherent in human nature that the
highest civilization, though it may
moderate it, has never completely OBJ
liberated it, is responsible for nearly
all of mans inhumanity to man.
The first chapter of Caesars Com
mentaries describing the life and GUS
toms of the people whose territory
he invaded, attributes their skill in
warfare to the fact that the neighbor-
ing tribes contended daily with each
other. For what did they contend?
To drive their neighbors from the
fertile fields they cultivated and make
by might-which then was right
those fields their own. Resources,
sufficiently abundant to supply since
then the needs of the inhabitants of
two populous empires, were all too lit
tie to satisfy the avarice of the few
scattered tribes who daily contended
to retain or to acquire, as the case
might be, what neither the one nor
the other knew how to use rightly.
Whether we go back through the
gloom of prehistoric ages till we stand
on the threshold of the worlds first
habitation, or turn and journey to the.
present, we find the children of Adam
to whom God gave the world as their
Inheritance, every one, to the selfish
exclusion of his brother, anxious to
be the sole heir of his richly en-
dowed parent l would gladly well
come the contradiction of this appar
emily pessimistic view of humanity,
provided the contradiction were found
ed on fact.
Supernatural Remedies.
Nature has, in it's pharmacopia, no
remedy for it's own innate ills. Out
side, and above nature, the cure must
be sought, and when found is cor
rectly labeled supernatural.
Under the benign influence of Chris
tian principles new era dawned that
promised relief for suffering humanity.
Civilization, which, in ultimate analy-
sis, is the respect one man has for
another mans rights, came and where
ever it fiourished it's softening influ-
ence tanned the ferocity which pagan
ideas had fostered in the heart of
fallen and degraded man. BY redeem
ing man from temporal wretchedness
it prepared him to cooperate in his
redemption from eternal misery.
Laws, whose aim was to defend the
inalienable rights of individuals, too
weak to protect themselves, were made,
and obeyed. The law that marks, with
well-defined line, what is yours and
what is mine, and defends our title
against aggression, touches the high
est note in the scale of civilization.
Permanent improvements, which are
the result of persevering industry, are
possible only where the law secures
undisputed possession. Hope is ever
the inspiring principle of mans best
effort-to know, and feel that when
he labors, he labors not in vain, hfts
the burden and lights the way OF the