The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-12-28
METROPOLITAN
 PRIEST ASSA|LS BONUS SYSTEM
Would Be Unnecessary, He Says, If Honest Wages
 Were Paid.

w VI v .A CV4kAs
 New York, Dec. 2S.-The Rev. John F.. O'Rourke, preaching in St. Pat rick's Cathedral, denounced the pay ing of bonuses, declaring that they would not be necessary if the working men had been paid an honest wage.
 '"Oh, they're paying bonuses now,' he cried. paying bonuses all over, If they had paid an honest wage there would be no need of bonuses And they want to arbitrate now with the workingman, but the question of ar bitration never occurred to them dur ing the last twenty years while the working man was the under dog. It's now, when the working man has got some power-the sword by the hilt, the whip .hand-that they'll arbitrate! An, the hardness to the poor!"
 Sfs And we hear so much of prepared ness and military service nowadays. I wonder what inducement the poor mo- tornan sees in military service for the country when his wife and child cannot get an egg because the eggs are, cornered-and cannot ge< meat because it's cornered?
 Justice Before Charity. 5"
 Remember, if God has given us wealth we do not own that wealth. We are only the stewards and the agents, and the man who out of his su- perflcial benevolence builds a hospi- tai that's bloody and tainted with the tears has that much upon his head If he had been fair he would not have had enough money to build hospitals and libraries. But men with hearts as hard as the granite in Grants Tomb on the Hudson make public gifts for the public eye.
 If we are to give charity, let us not forget that justice comes before char ity--let us not forget that if there is to be companion to charity it must be. justice which comes before" ;. Replying to recent assertions that Christianity had failed or the war could not have gone on, he said:
 .'They say now that Christianity is "a thet-death of Christ on Calvary a fail- failure. So, in the same sense, was ure : Times never seemed b1acker than when He died, and yet, three hundred years later the crowns had been flung from the heads of hte Cae- sars and placed onl the heads of fish ernien-
 MT Eliot, of Harvard, a week ago, told us that Christianity had failed. And the blasphemous MT. George Ser nard Shaw says, Mars in excelsis, and he would have brought about the fail ure and abandonment of Christianity if he. could. This is the result of a goddess system of education which takes God from mems hearts"
 Lays Blame for War.
 Speaking of the war, which be laid to the. rulers, Father O'Rourke said:
 ''The men of Europe are facing one another in hate, and they are there because the rulers willed it. The rulers turned their backs on Chris tianity. Christianity has no fair trial in the counsels and destinies of these men. Men are fighting for patriotism but those to blame are those who clos ed their eyes and closed their ears to the teachings of the babe"
 A feature of the celebration was the presence at the altar of Father c. Borchmann McCann, once an altar boy in St Patrick's, who was specially or dained a priest by his uncle, Bishop Thomas F. Cusack, of Albany, at St. Patrick's on Thursday last.
 Father McCann, who is twenty-f1v years old, was honorary master of ceremonies. At the altar also were his two brothers, William McCann, 8 sub-deacon, and Walter McCann, who is studying for tbe priesthood.
 Cardinal Farley was assisted by Fathers Peter Buckley and Michael Lucey, as deacon and sub-deacon. Father John J. Quinn and Bernard F, McQuade acted as deacons of honor. Monsignor Michael J. Lavalle, V. G.. was assistant priest. He wished the congregation all the blessings and compliments of the season on behalf of the Cardinal The mass was con- cluded with the Papal benediction, inn parted by the Cardinal.