The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-11

Before an audience of several hun dred persons in St. Augustine's chapel last night, Dr. J. A. Ryan of the Cath ollie University at Washington, gave an interesting and enlightening lec- ture on "The Church and the Social Question:" the first of series Of lec- lures to be delivered under the aus pices of the Catholic Charitable bu- reau.
 Easing his logic on a fund of facts gleaned in his many years of study in the sociological field. Dr. Ryan made aNmasterly presentation of his subject. With no attempt at elocu- tionary effort, relying only on clear' concise statement of fact, he held the audience closely throughout his talk. Members of charitable societies, so- cial workers, and clergymen were present. Among those in the aud fence were Mayor Wilson and Super intendent of Charities Gordon. pr. Ryan was introduced by Will liam A. Redden, who spoke of the plan for a series of lectures. The Ozanam orchestra played before and after the lecture.
 The speaker opened his address by relating the fact that he had received a letter from a workingman in the west stating. that the Catholic church is allied with the Capitalists. Dr. Ryan dwelt on the circumstances that have given rise to this misconception and reviewed other assertions. many many of them of diametrically op- posite nature, that have been made from time to time. He then went into the history of the Church in social work, told what it had accom- plished and hadn't accomplished and what, in the future, it is hoped to achieve.
 He spoke of the doctrine of individ- ual rights-the rights which the Church contends are inborn in every man, and come not from the state hut are in himself. 'If the doctrine that the rights of the individual come from the state, then the state may take away those rights at any time," he said.
 Incidentally" he said, 'I believe that in no place outside the paroch1al schools of the Catholic Church is the doctrine of the inborn right of the in- dividual taught. The Declaration of Independence had the right idea; be- cause it teaches that the state is for the individual and not the ind1vldua! for the state: The latter theory is rather prevalent now but fortunately not in the Catholic Church"
 Speaking on the labor question, Dr. Ryan said that two-thirds of the men in the country are getting too little wages to support a family properly and two-thirds of the women are get ting too little to allow them to live away from home.
 Without mentioning the Wilson ad- ministration. he endorsed it's action, when he said there are some times when the state has a moral right to, and must step in and settle disputes in a crisis by legislation.
 ''It doesn't prove anything" he said, 'to' say that the railroad men are getting more than other men. It may indicate that the others are not get ting enough"
 ."The Catholic church has tradition ally been the champion" Dr. Ryan said, "of the movement which seeks to make the worker part owner of the tools with which he works. "No matter how high wages go, the industrial system will not be stable until the workman becomes part own CT of his tools."
 DI'. Ryan said he is firmly convinced that had not the Reformation occur red with its distractions, there would have been no such thing today as the so-called capitalist class, because the machines of industry wouldn't have fallen into the hands of a wealthy few and the worker would have had some share in them, as the church was | champfoning such a system. After reviewing the assertions that had been made in regard to the | church's handling of the social ques- tion, Dr.. Ryan said:
 "We turn to the Middle Ages be- cause the church was then powerful enough to carry out her principles of | social organiza tion, and her influence was supreme in every department of | life. We find certain social doctrines and institutions shaping the social life | of the peoples. First and fundamen- tai was the doctrine that ownership was stewardship, not the right to do | what one pleased with ones possess l sions; hence the doctrine that the starving man had right to seize his neighbours food, if- necessary, to sus- tain his life; the doctrine that mans | superfluous goods were not to be used for the satisfaction, of his own wf1ims, but belonged to those in need; the system of dual ownership of land, by which the tenant had secure possess sion and the right to transmit to his children his holding of land: the &C., ton of Pope Clement ". and several other popes in permitting the people to cultivate the third part of an es- tate which an owner stubbornly held
 out of use.
 | Another important doctrine was that of just price, not merely the
 market price, or extortion price, or
 monopoly price, for both goods and labor; hence the universal condemna-
 tion of monopoly, the regulation of
 the prices of food by law, and the regulation of wages by the guilds, and
 the test of just price was the custom ary needs of the seller; hence too, the
 condemnation and prohibition of in- l terest on loans, as an attempt to get a price for something that did not exist.
 "The consequence of all this was diffused ownership of property in both town and country. and a more equitable distribution of existing pro-
 ducts than obtains today. There was no capitalism, and no proletariat. In
 political matters the doctrine was