The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-03-03
EVILS
 MUST BE CURED
Catholic Council Points Out De- feCtS in Present System and Advocates Cooperative
 Reforms.

hSNOA'A1Ss LAlC SNItS u ulOuOpOly DN U small minority of privileged capitalists and advocating cooperative stores, CO., i partnership and sufficient incomes for ! the great majority of wage-earners as remedies for postwar economic condi- 1ons in tbis country, the Administra- 1 tive Committee of four bishops repre- senttng the hierarchy of the Catholic , Church in America in conducting the i National Catholic War Council have 1 issued the following as a part of an of ] ticial pronouncement on economic and social reconstruction,
 i Reduction In Cost of LlyInp. During the war the cost of living has risen at least seventy-five per cent. above the level of 1913. Some check has been placed upon the upward trend by government fixing of prices in the case of bread and coal and a few other l commodities. Even if we believe 1t de- sirable we cannot ask that the govern
 ment continue this action after the ar ticles of peace have been signed, for
 neither public opinion nor Congress is
 ready for such a revolutionary policy If the extortionate practices of monop- SA5 " NSAO EL 1F S44tCA DE lASI I1L6 laNS and adequate law enforcement prices would automatically be kept at as low 1 q level as that to which they might be brought by direct government determi- nation. Just what laws in addition to those already on the statute books are necessary to abolish monopolistic ex-
 tOrtiOn Is a question of detail that need not be considered here. In pass Ing, it may be noted that government
 competition with monopolfes that can not be effectively restrained by the or dinary antitrust laws deserves more serious consideration than it has vet received.
 Cooperative Stores.
 More important and more effective than any government regulation Of prices would be the establishment of cooperative stores. The enormous toll taken from industry by the various classes of mtddIemen Is now fully reat- tzed. The astonishing difference be- tween the price received by the pro- ducer and that paid by the consumer has become a scandal 70 our industrial system. The obvious and direct means of reducing this discrepancy and aboI- Ishing unnecessary mtddIemen Is the operation of retail and wholesale mer- camille concerns under the ownership and management of the consumers. This Is no UtoDian scheme It has been successfully carried out in Eng land and Scotland through the Koch dale system. Very few serious efforts of this kind have been made in this country because our people have not felt the need of these cooperative en- terprises as keenly as the European working classes and because we have been too impatient and too individual istic to make the necessary sacrifices and to be content with moderate bene- fits and gradual progress. Neverthe- less our superior energy, Initiative and commercial capacity will enable us once We set about the task earnestly even to surpass what has been done in England and Scotland.
 Train to Habits of Saving.
 Tn addition to reducing the cost of living, the cooperative stores would train our working people and con sumers generally in habits of saving, in 1 careful expenditure, in business meth l Ods and in the capacity for co-opera- | tton. When the working classes have | learned to make the sacrifices and to | exercise the patience required by the | ownership and operation of cO-opera- tive stores they will be equipped to un- dertake a great variety of tasks and | projects which benefit the community 1 immediately and all its constituent | members ultimately. They will then l realize the folly of excessive selfish ! ness and senseless indivfdualism. Until | they have acquired this knowledge, 1 training and capacity, desirable exten- siOns of governmental action in indus l try will not be attended by a normal . amount of success. No machinery of i government can operate automatically, and no official and bureaucratic admin istratiOn of such machinery can ever be a substitute for intelligent interest and cooperation by the individuals of . the community.
 Ultimate Reforms.
 Despite the practical and imme- dIate character of the present state ment, we cannot entirely neglect the question of ultimate aims and a sys- tematic program, for other groups are busy issuing such systematic pro- nouncements, and We all need some thing of the kind as a philosophical foundation and as a satisfaction to our natural desire for comprehensive state ments.
 Tt seems clear that the present in- dustrial system is destined to last for long time in it's main outlines Is to say, private ownership of capital is not likely to be supplanted by eonec- twist organization of industry at a date sufficiently near to Justify any present action based on the hypothesis of it's arrival This forecast we recog- nize as not only extremely probable, but as highly desirable, for, other ob- Jecuons apart, Socialism would mean Bureaucracy, political tyranny, the helplessness of the individual as a fac tor in the ordering of his own life and in -nneral social tnef1ciency and de- cad .e
 Defects of Present System.
 Nevertheless the present system stands in grievous need of consider able modi6cations and improvement. Its main defects are three-enornous