The Irish standard., 1915-01-16

the craftsmen. Her great monasteries
served as the refugees of the poor, who
for some reason or other would be-
come economically dependent. The
praises Of the era in which her social
and religious ideas prevailed has been
sung by men of such varying beliefs
as Thorold Rogers, the great Liberal
economist, in his Economic Interpre-
tation of History; Henry Demarest
Lloyd, the American Socialist, in his
Men, the Workers.; Prince P. A. Kro-
potkin, the Russian anarchist, in his
Mutual Aid Factor of Evolution"
and Henry NJ. Hyndman, the founder
of the British Socialist party, in his
Historical Basis of Socialism in Eng
land" "In looking back through the
history of our country" Hyndman
writes, there is one period when by
common consent men and women who
worked with their hands were better
off than at any other time before or
since. 1t may be doubted whether any
European community ever enjoyed
such rough plenty as the English yeo.
men, craftsmen, and laborers Of the
fifteenth century," (Historical Basis
of Socialism in England, London, 1883,
p. ~ This period he acclaims as 'the
Golden Age Of the People" Nor does
he hesitate to show the reasons, i'm
mediately, at least, responsible for
this condition the social teachings
and policy of the Catholic Church. He
also reveals the destructive influence
of the Reformation, when the guilds
and monasteries were seized upon by
the mobiles and the wealthy classes,
and the poor, to be got rid of, were
hanged to trees in patches.
The Reason for Present Evil
Conditions.
Leo XIII points out the reason for
the evil conditions which are FREEDOM
inant today-a fact which Mr.. Thomp-
son in his quotations peculiarly for
gets to note. 1t is because public in
of the democracy. OF course. Social
ism plans to have the means of pro-
duction and distribution democratical-
ly managed. But the worker surely
realizes the immense difference of
holding an ownership in an individual
tool or individual share than voting as
one of thousands and millions for the
men who are to control the property,
which belongs, not to him individually,
but to the state. The church would
wish to see the diffusion of property
among the people and thus give to
them real economic democracy, grad
ually and surely, relieving the worker
from wage slavery as she did the slave
and the serf from their conditions Of
servitude. And so we hear the great
Heinrich Pesch saying: mot Capt.
talism, not Socialism, but Solidarism,"
which stands for the common good.
And so we hear Belloc enunciating
the same principles in his "Servile
State"
The Solution Of Our Problems.
Some say" declares Mr.. Thompson,
triumphantly, that the church will
solve these problems for us. But can
it? What we must have is land, and
factories, and mines, mills. and rail-
roads-places to work. The church
does not own them, not control them,
even Indirectly. Therefore it cannot
give us Jobs, nor fix our wages, nor
reduce the cost of living. In these
matters we must act independently"
Who, we pray, has said that the church
alone could solve these problems?
Certainly not the Church herself or
any of her acknowledged spokesman.
On the other hand, it is clearly un-
derstood, and the Holy See, in the
persons of Leo XIII and Plus X, has
affirmed that the state must do its
share through proper legislation and
the people must also act through their
associations of various kinds. These
agencies which control economic
forces should direct the economic
forces, but such direction should be
in accordance with the philosophy of
the Church and the principles of the
natural law or it will amount to
naught, as past history has proven.
The State may legislate and legislate
and a certain section of the citizens
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