The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-05-04
terest, and thus solved the vexed
problem of capital and labor.

| spiration of Charles Borromeo down
to the founding of the Catholic Uni
versity of America by the Bishops OF
| the United States, education has been
the chief solicitude of the hierarchy.
In all parts of the world institutions
of learning, higher and lower, have
grown up and prospered as they never
did before under the fostering care
! of the Bishops. And in our own coun-
| try the marvellous growth of the
Church is due most Of all to the sys-
tenn Of schools to which the Bishops
of America irrevocably committed
themselves in the Third Plenary
Council of Baltimore. Is it any won
der that Plus X, quoting the words of
the Council of Trent, should declare:
'Praecipuum episcoporum munus est
praedicare,' : teaching the truths
of Christ's Kingdom on earth is the
chief office of the Bishops?
Need of Guidance.
Never did the world need more than
at the present moment the steadying
influence of the teaching body of the
Church The world war has pushed
into prominence problems which have
been agitating the minds of thinking
men for generations. Chief among
these is the problem of capital and
labor. The strong governments of the
world have not only conscripted men
for their ornaments, but they have
enlisted the cooperation of labor and
capital, and mobilfzed all the resour-
ces of their respective nations. A
high sense of patriotism nowhere
more visible than in America, has
with unparalleled generosity furnish
ed food, money and service for the
common cause. Sabotage, which, a
little while ago darkened the horizon,
has disappeared, the apostles of dis
content have been silenced, and the.
great labor unions have pledged them
selves to discountenance strikes for
the period of the war in all work
needed by their governments.
But the question is being asked on
all sides, What will happen when
the war is over?" Millions of fight
ing men will be returned to civil life.
Millions now employed in munition
factories, in mines and shipyards will
no longer be needed by the govern
ment. What effect will the sudden
release of this immense multitude of
workers have on the economic life OF
the world? Owing to the general de-
pletion of wealth, which the protrac
ton of the gigantic struggle will en-
tail, how can adequate employment
be furnished? Above all, will the
workers who have helped the govern
ment in its hour of need and the
soldiers who have risked their lives
on the field of battle be willing to ac-
cept pre-war conditions? Leaders Of
both capital and labor and economic
writer's everywhere say they will not.
We have seen the demands of the
soldiers and peasants in Russia and
the resultant condition of that un-
happy country. The Labor-Planning
Board of America has agreed on a
basis of principles to govern the re-
lation of capital and labor during the
war; And in Great Britain the Labor
Party has submitted to the govern
ment a program to be adopted after
the war; which involves the creation
of "a new social ORDER a new in
dustrial civilization"
Socialism.
In the meantime, socialism contin-
ues to preach the doctrine that labor
is the source of all wealth, and that,
therefore, wages must be increased
until labor obtains the possession OF
all wealth. 1t foments class-hatred
by attributing to capital all the evils
of the present social order reckless
profteering, wage-slavery, unlimited
competition, monstrous social Unequal
tiles, intolerable living conditions
physical and moral degradation. II
| declares these evils to be irremedi
able under 'the capitalistic system
and that, therefore, that system must
| be overthrown 1t even goes SO faI
as to say that the Church is the en-
/ emy of labor, that it is in league with
capital to defraud labor of it's JUS
rewards and to defeat its laudable
/ aspirations.
Can the Church remain silent while
such doctrines are being taught to tht
i multitudes? Have her Bishops, tn,
tdivinely appointed teaching body, al
answer to make to the great question
of the hour?. Yes, they have an an
swer-and that answer furnishes tn,
only adequate solution to the vexin'
problem. Upon the acceptance o
i that answer depend both the stabil
ity of society and the interests of re
ligion. If that answer be not accept
ed, revolution will cover the earth t
whose horrors even the present dc
structive' struggle of the nations
but the mild prelude. That answe
is the one the great Bishop of Rome
the immortal Leo XIII, made in hi
famous encyclfcal on the HConditio
J of the Working Glasses" Leaders {
! capital and labor, statesmen an
churchmen the world over know th
u answer, for they have made Leb's el
J cyolical their cherished textbook eve
since its appearance in 1891 But
Z 1.-THE evils that threaten society at th